Abstract :
As texts read by both children and adults, dual-readership texts are sometimes translated into different versions depending on their intended readership in the target culture. This paper discusses how character names are translated in dual-readership texts with examples taken from different Chinese translations of a classic dual-readership text: J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Three target texts are selected for analysis: the translation by Liang Shiqiu (1929), the translation by Yang Jingyuan (1991) and the translation by Ren Rongrong (2011). After comparing the translation of character names in these target texts, it is found that while different translations do sometimes adopt similar strategies when translating common everyday names and surnames, there are also quite a few instances when differentiating strategies are used in different translations. It is argued that the choice of translation strategy for character names is influenced by the intended readership of the target text. When translating for children, the target text tends to prioritize the descriptive function of names, producing translations that are more culturally-familiar to children or with more colloquial expressions.
