Negotiating cultural salience：a Bourdieusian-Adaptation analysis of state-sponsored ethnic minority poem Zhao Shutun translation

Abstract

This study investigates the negotiation of cultural salience in China’s state-sponsored translation of the Dai ethnic poem Zhao Shutun through a Bourdieusian-Adaptation framework. Post-2000, China’s translation policies shifted from a state- undifferentiated patronage to a state-differentiated model, institutionalizing ethnic texts like Zhao Shutun as instruments of cultural diplomacy. By synthesizing Bourdieu’s field theory—analyzing field constraints, capital conversion and institutional habitus—with Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory, the analysis uncovers how cultural salience is negotiated across four dimensions: (1) Contextual Adaptation: Field-specific salience dictates strategies through a tripartite filter—policy-driven prioritization, cultural valuation, and global readability adjustments; (2) Structural Adaptation: Linguistic and paratextual strategies systematically convert Dai cultural capital into symbolic capital; (3) Dynamic Adaptation: Institutional habitus governs translators’ real-time decisions, balancing phonetic fidelity with semantic domestication; (4) Salience Hierarchization: Translators habitually amplify high-salience rituals, negotiate moderate-salience symbols and erase low-salience terms. The findings reveal translation as a contested field where cultural authenticity is both valorized and systematically adapted to align with state-endorsed narratives of "multicultural unity." Theoretically, this study bridges sociological and pragmatic approaches, challenging Eurocentric World Literature paradigms by centering marginalized Chinese minority voices. Empirically, it demonstrates how authoritarian actors leverage institutionalized translation mechanisms to transform cultural diversity into soft power currency, proposing a multidimensional analytical model for state-mediated literary exchanges.