Feminist Translation of Chinese and Japanese Fairy Tales in the Twentieth Century: France, Spain, and Northern Ireland

What is the legacy of women translators who introduced Chinese and Japanese tales to European audiences in the twentieth century? Judith Gautier, Helen Waddell, and Marcela de Juan acted as cultural go-betweens, translating tales respectively into French, English, and Spanish. This article analyses their macro- and micro-strategies, showing how they freely transformed originals while reshaping perceptions of Chinese and Japanese women. It further adopts an ecofeminist perspective on the hybrid heroines they highlighted whose transgressions of human and non-human boundaries redefined female agency and contributed to a new typology of Far Eastern heroines.