Chinese Online Novel Translation Under the Guidance of Reception Aesthetics - A Case Study of the English Version of Battle Through the Heavens

Aug 23, 2026

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Online novels have achieved measurable success in the foreign dissemination of Chinese culture, making their translation strategies crucial for improving cross-cultural communication outcomes. This paper uses the English translation of Battle Through the Heavens by Kong Xuesong as a case study and examines how reception aesthetics can guide translation decisions. By analyzing the characteristics of network novels and the current translation situation, the study explores practical methods to better align translated texts with readers’ expectations, horizons, and appeal structures.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Studies on Reception Aesthetics

Development of reception aesthetics

Main concepts of reception aesthetics for this study

The horizon of expectation

Chinese Online Novel Translation Under the Guidance of Reception Aesthetics --A Case Study of the English Version of Battle Through the Heavens Jing Wu1, Xiaoxin Chen2, * 1School of of Foreign Studies, China University of petroleum; China 2School of Foreign Studies, China University of petroleum, Shandong, China * Corresponding author: [chenxiaoxin@upc.edu.cn](chenxiaoxin@upc.edu.cn). Abstract: Online novels have achieved a certain degree of success in the foreign dissemination of Chinese culture. The research on the translation of online novels is conducive to the decoding on the success of cultural communications abroad. This paper takes the translation of Battle Through the Heavens by Kong Xuesong as an example from the perspective of the theory of reception aesthetics to discuss the translator's translation strategies and study how to provide a better translation through the analysis of the characteristics of network novels and the current situation of translation. Keywords: Reception aesthetics, Online novels, Battle Through the Heavens. 1. Introduction Online novels refer to literary works, literary texts and online art works with certain literary components, which arepresented by the Internet as a platform for communication. Asthe product of the Internet era, it is the cultural achievement of the public and the carrier for young writers to express their feelings and imagination. These novels absorb the elements in Chinese and western fantasy literature while creating. Thus it’s seen as a widely-accepted cross-cultural communication. However, due attention has not been paid toit, and there are few academic studies on it, not to mention the study of online novel translation from the perspective of reception aesthetics (Wu, 2020) . Moreover, the translation studies on reception aesthetics are mainly focused on the theoretical level. The main direction is to analyze its significance to translation from the perspectives of “horizon of expectation”,“fusion of horizon” and “appeal structure”, and there are no sufficient examples to explore corresponding translation strategies and methods. The English translation of online literature is not only a theoretical problem, but also a practical one, so it is necessary to explore the translation methods of online literature translators (Wu, 2020) . Battle Through the Heavens (Li Hu) is an online fantasy novel. It describes the story of Xiao Yan, a genius boy who accidentally becomes a loser and experiences a series of hardships, but then reverses his success.The book depicts a fantastical, colorful, and desirable world, which is loved by overseas readers. Among them, Kong Xuesong's English translation has a high page view and acceptance on wuxiaworld. Therefore, the author will make use of the key concepts of reception aesthetics and take Kong's translation as an example to analyze the translation of this text, in order to provide translators with some new ideas for translation. 2. Studies on Reception Aesthetics 2.1. Development of reception aesthetics In 1976, Hans Robert Jauss gave a famous speech, entitled“Literary History as a Challenge to Scholarly Theory”. Wu Tiezhu (2014:45) reckoned that “the publication of it marked the birth of reception aesthetics. It established a literary theory centered on the reader as the center of study, which addressed a theory of reception that criticized the shortcomings of past literary theory studies”. Reception aesthetics breaks the pattern of centering on writers and works in the past, and studies literary works with readers as the orientation. This theory holds that the reader is the most important part of the process of completing a literary work. Liu Jianming&Wang Taixuan(1997) believes that“the educational and entertainment functions of a work must be realized in the reading of the reader, and the process of realization is the process of the work gaining vitality and final completion. The reader is active in this

FAQs

Why does reception aesthetics matter for translating online novels?

Reception aesthetics centers on readers and views a literary work as completed through the reader’s active reception. This provides a theoretical basis for aligning translation with readers’ expectations and responses.

What is the case study used in the paper?

The paper analyzes Kong Xuesong’s English translation of the online fantasy novel Battle Through the Heavens, focusing on how translator strategies contribute to overseas acceptance.

What core concepts does the study use to analyze translation?

The study mainly employs Jauss’s horizon of expectation, Iser’s appeal structure, and Gadamer’s fusion of horizons, using them to interpret translation processes from the reader perspective.

Aug 23, 2026

Upload by Levi