The Canonization of The Epic of Gesar as a historical poem, is a long heroic epic formed by the accumulation of various cultural elements from Tibetan myths, historical narratives, cultural memories, customs, beliefs, and expressive discourse throughout different periods. In different eras, among different ethnic groups, and within varied historical contexts, continuously creating new versions of the epic. Moreover, through the recording, organizing, research, commentary, and further creative contributions by generations of eminent monks, wise sages, and scholar-literati, the process of its canonization has been persistently advanced.The Epic of Gesar is a living classic. From its orally transmitted form to the written texts that have been recorded and organized, through literary historiography, diverse interpretations among different ethnicities, and its translation and dissemination both domestically and internationally, it has gradually established its status as a classic.

Tsubouchi Shōyō is known as the ‘father’ of comparative literature in Japan, and his pioneering Shakespeare translations (completed between 1909 and 1928) are rooted in his comparative outlook. One comparative framework that seems to have influenced Tsubouchi throughout his career, starting in the 1880s, is the pedagogic ideal of 'wakanyō', namely the synthesis of local Japanese ('wa'), universal Chinese ('kan') and spiritualized Western ('yō') elements that was influential in late 19th century Japan. 'Wakanyō' is relevant to the gradual replacement during the period of Japan’s modernisation of the traditional 'kundoku' method of reading and translating classical Chinese texts according to Japanese syntax and word order with translation styles based on the contemporary colloquial. In the case of Tsubouchi’s Shakespeare translations, this movement (known as genbun icchi) facilitates a dynamic engagement with Shakespeare’s spoken idiom based on a modern techne of translation in which techniques such as paraphrase and compensation emulate the normative authority of Sino-Japanese characters, and can be demonstrated by comparing Tsubouchi’s early 1884 adaptation of Shakespeare’s "Julius Caesar" with his 1913 translation of the same play in modern Japanese. Tsubouchi does not necessarily need to appropriate Renaissance ideals such as honour that are embedded in the play, and yet his creative and domesticating translation style does beg comparisons between such ideals and, for example, the Buddhist and Confucianist ideals that shaped the Chinese tradition, and can be set against the changing cultural relationship of China and Japan over the course of Tsubouchi’s career. My presentation will survey the basic techniques (or techne) of Tsubouchi’s Shakespeare translations, and consider what it means for them to refer not only to Shakespeare’s Renaissance culture but to the Chinese cultural sphere in which his early education was based.

To illustrate the cultural attributes of costume in the novel from a translation viewpoint, the research delves into the cultural translatability of costumes in the classic novel Dream of the Red Chamber, focusing on the translation work of David Hawkes and John Minford. The theoretical foundation derives from previous scholars’ cultural translatability theories, summarizing the previous research and debates on translatability and untranslatability.

This study aims to expand the existing researches on cultural translatability in translation studies by investigating the subject through unconventional theoretical lenses. Based on the three aspects of translatability proposed by previous scholars, this study redefines three levels to evaluate cultural translatability: Linguistic level, Literary level, and Cultural level. From linguistics level, the study focuses on accuracy, examining whether Hawkes’ costume translation conveys the original textual content. In terms of literary level, The research investigates whether English clothing translations, like their Chinese counterparts, communicate character personalities, using Wang Xifeng and Jia Baoyu as case studies. From the perspective of cultural level, the study explores the extent to which clothing translations transmit the cultural connotations of the original text. Furthermore, it adopts a triangulated methodology encompassing questionnaire surveys, semi-structured interviews, and comparative textual analysis. Through this mixed-methods approach, the research seeks to address methodological unicity in previous investigations while providing complementary empirical evidence to advance current understandings of cultural translatability.

The study finds that while Hawkes’ translation captures the essence of the costumes, it partially fails to convey the deeper cultural connotations, especially for those unfamiliar with the novel. The research concludes that costume translation plays a supportive role in character portrayal rather than a dominant one and suggests using paratext to compensate for cultural losses in translation.