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Foreignization of Nicknames of Characters in All Men Are 
Brothers Translated by Pearl S. Buck  

Jiaxuan Lu 
School of Foreign Languages & Literature of Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, China. 

1547126570@qq.com 

Abstract. All Men Are Brothers is the only translation of Pearl S. Buck, an American female writer, 
and also the first English translation of Outlaws of the Marsh. From the perspective of foreignization 
translation method, this paper aims to investigate foreignization used in the translation of nicknames 
of characters, and to explore ways of promoting Chinese culture communication and exchange 
through translations. Pearl S. Buck’s English translation version shows an obvious tendency of 
foreignization in nicknames, which is intended to guide the target readers to restore the legendary 
lives of heroes in this famous work. This kind of translation strategy reflects the exchanges, collisions, 
mergers and inclusiveness between Chinese and Western cultures so that foreign readers have an 
in-depth understanding of the Four famous Chinese works as well as Chinese traditional culture.  

Keywords: Foreignization; Nickname; All Men Are Brothers; Cultural communication and exchange. 

1. Introduction 
As the peak of the development of Chinese classical novels, in the 1930s, the All Men Are Brothers 

was first translated into English by Pearl S. Buck and began to spread in Europe and America. After 
that, many versions of this long famous work appeared. At present, the most influential versions of 
Water Margin are Pearl S. Buck’s English translation and Shapiro’s English translation “Outlaws of 
the Marsh” [1]. The translation of “All Men Are Brothers” is the first English translation published 
and favored by readers. It is of great significance to enhance the western world’s understanding of 
China, dispel the hegemony of Western culture, and promote contemporary Chinese culture to the 
world. This translation has a great impact on the European and American literary circles, and has also 
become the main basis for the study of the translation of “Water Margin”.  

Foreignization translation refers to the translation that retains the exotic nature of the original text 
to a certain extent and deliberately breaks the conventions of the target language. It advocates 
retaining the source language culture in the translation and enriching the target language culture and. 
This paper selects some distinctive language features and rich cultural content in All Men Are 
Brothers, and takes the nicknames of characters as the research object to analyze the application and 
language characteristics of foreignization translation strategies in the translation of nicknames of 
characters in this version. It is hoped that this paper can make contributions to the results of previous 
studies. 

We believe that the combination of “Cultural Integration” and “Characterization” will achieve a 
better translation effect when translating nicknames. At the beginning, the character image is passed 
to the readers through the introduction of its nickname. The readers will generally have the first 
impression perception of a certain role, and the later plot development will test the appropriateness 
of the nickname at any time, and promote the readers to “feel” it from a new angle, fully grasp its 
rationality and literary significance, rather than accept it as it should be. In the process of 
understanding the life of the character, readers will gradually accept the nicknames given to the 
characters from the confusion of nickname translation at the beginning. If the translated nicknames 
do not fit the overall image of the characters, the translation of nicknames will also mislead and distort 
the readers’ understanding of the characters. Many people who love translated literature are not only 
appreciating the legends in foreign works, but also thinking about the impression of each character in 
their minds after reading, and the key clue is nickname. This will make readers sublimate their 
impression on the work of Outlaws of the Marsh and have a deeper understanding. Another 



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significance of this is to better promote the exchange between different cultures. A culture can be 
enriched to the greatest extent only when it communicates with heterogeneous cultures. Only accurate 
and appropriate nicknames, which are absorbed and accepted by the target language, can better 
promote the exchange between eastern and Western cultures and learn from each other. Thus, the 
target language readers can better enrich their spiritual world through the mirror of foreign culture 
and their own cultural differences. It can be seen that only by fully understanding the story behind 
the characters' lives and digging deep into their personality traits can the translator translate the 
authentic nicknames of the characters, so as to deepen the understanding of the works and promote 
cultural exchange. 

2. Literature Review 
2.1 Pearl S. B’s All Men Are Brothers 

The Water Margin, one of China’s four famous works, has excellent writing skills and profound 
cultural connotation, which has attracted many scholars at home and abroad. The All Men Are 
Brothers of Pearl Buck, an American writer, is the first English translation of the Water Margin. Since 
its publication, the work has been appreciated by readers all over the world and affirmed by the 
translation community. It plays a pivotal role in disseminating Chinese culture and increasing the 
national cultural soft power. The study of All Men Are Brothers has also changed from simple text 
studies to studies of cultural connotations behind weapon names and nicknames. Pearl S. Buck adopts 
the foreignization translation strategy in the translation of the Outlaws of the Marsh, which is intended 
to guide the target readers to approach the original work and faithfully reflect the cultural connotation 
of the original work. From the perspective of foreignization strategy, the selection of appropriate 
vocabulary, the arrangement of reasonable word order and the pursuit of the origin of allusions are 
all important manifestations. Pearl S. Buck’s translation uses the inherent vocabulary in Chinese 
culture as much as possible and complies with the expression habits of Chinese, keeping the allusions 
of Chinese culture. After analyzing the translation of some typical language phenomena in the 
Outlaws of the Marsh, it is not difficult to find that Pearl S. Buck uses the foreignization translation 
strategy which, to a great extent, is consistent with the original thought and faithful to the original 
culture[2]. 

2.2 Nicknames in All Men Are Brothers 
The core of foreignization translation proposed by Venuti is to create a translation theory and 

practice that resists the mainstream cultural values of the target language, so as to highlight the values 
and cultural differences of foreign language works[2]. Due to the translator’s initiative, foreignization 
translation is not equal to faithful translation, and deviating from the cultural values of the target 
language does not necessarily follow the cultural tradition of the original text. When translating, the 
translator should abandon the existing translation habits and create an expression that restores the 
original text. This approach has two results. Firstly, if the translator excessively faithfully restores the 
original text in foreignization translation, the translation will be full of rich cultural heterogeneity, 
but deviate from the meaning expressed in the original work. When Pearl translated the nicknames 
of characters in her English translation of Water Margin (hereinafter referred to as “the translation of 
Outlaws of the Marsh”), the foreignization translation method was used to achieve this. However, 
there are still some deficiencies in the translation of the nicknames of the characters in the All Men 
Are Brothers. Nicknames often have specific cultural meanings, and the textual research of some 
nickname meanings was tough at that time, which constituted a cultural barrier in translation. Taking 
the English translation of the mother yecha Sun Erniang as an example.，Pearl translated the “mother 
yecha” into female night ogre, which means the ugly ghost appearing at night, and the true meaning 
of the mother yecha is a fierce woman rather than a ghost like terrorist image. It is obvious that Pearl 
translated “mother yecha” literally here and chose the original meaning of yecha. As one of the few 



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female images among Liangshan heroes, this translation neither conformed to Chinese traditional 
culture for women, nor translated the characteristics of Sun Erniang’s bold, malicious, smart and 
virtuous characters. Secondly, if the translator gets in and out of the translation object in 
foreignization translation, makes appropriate aesthetic innovation, but does not rewrite the cultural 
heterogeneity of the original text, readers can be guided to the scene described by the author and 
overlook the style of the original work. Translators should restore their internal cultural heritage to 
the greatest extent, helping spread Chinese culture and promote cultural exchange, which requires 
translators to have superb translation skills, not only to accurately translate the meaning of nicknames, 
but also to reflect national characteristics to a certain extent. So maybe the translation of Sun erniang’s 
name can be “able woman”. The image of Sun Erniang’s careful and considerate sister-in-law jumped 
onto the paper. It can be said that the gentle femininity of Sun erniang in the novel is far better than 
the murderous spirit of the masked mother Yasha. The English translation of nicknames can not only 
meet the requirements of neat and rigid translation of literal meaning, but also explore the symbolic 
or metaphorical significance behind the nicknames of characters. Each nickname has its origins or 
allusions, and contains the personalities and life stories of heroes. The translator should reproduce the 
personality characteristics of the characters according to their nicknames, and should never get the 
meaning out of the context or abandon the meaning of the words.  

For the translation of nicknames, the translator is not only limited to the right and wrong judgments 
in the translation of “alienation” and even “domestication”, but also takes factors such as a character's 
life experience and personality development as one of the important basis for accurate translation. He 
should combine the ups and downs of a character’s life to produce a nickname translation that best 
reflects his own characteristics, and show a certain degree of respect for heroes. It enables readers to 
gradually understand the origin of the character’s nickname and accept the character and his nickname 
imperceptibly when they carefully taste the translated works. 

2.3 Foreignization Theory 
Foreignization translation method, proposed by F. Schleiermacher [2], is a translation strategy that 

guides readers to the author. It deviates from the target language, highlights the language charm of 
the original work and makes readers understand cultural differences. Venuti（1995）clearly put 
forward in his publication “The translator’s a history of translation” that the only criterion for British 
and American literary translation is “smoothness”. After the translation is generated, there is no trace 
of the translator’s participation in the translation system, which makes readers have the illusion that 
they are reading the original text written in English, rather than the translation translated from the 
original text by the translator. 

The translation of Outlaws of the Marsh embodies a kind of “alienation charm”, which reflects the 
respect for foreign culture. The principle of its translation is to convey the traditional culture of 
Chinese literature in the West as authentic as possible. As Pearl Buck has lived and worked in China 
for many years, and has been influenced by China’s traditional culture, literature, customs and ethics, 
Pearl Buck has a deep Chinese cultural heritage. Confucian ethics is one of the important components. 
There is a patriarchal society with “loyalty”, “filial piety”, “benevolence” and “love” as the core. 
“Honesty” has become an important basic criterion in interpersonal communication in the traditional 
Confucian thought. This powerful social ethics not only affects all aspects of human beings, but also 
affects the professional norms of translators [3]. Chinese Confucianism advocates “self-cultivation”, 
“family harmony”, “governing the country” and “pacifying the world”, achieving the ideal of “one 
family under the heaven” and “all brothers in the four seas”. It reflects her recognition of Chinese 
cultural values and respect for the cultural differences between China and the West [4]. 



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3. Results and Discussion 
3.1 Pearl Buck’s translation strategy and original intention 

One of the important purposes of Pearl Buck’s translation of the All Men Are Brothers is to convey 
the most authentic charm of classical literature and appreciate the most authentic Chinese culture. In 
the social and cultural context at that time, an American would generally choose the domestication 
strategy to translate Chinese novels into English, but Pearl Buck took a different approach. She took 
the reproduction of the source language and culture as the basic principle, and transmitted Chinese 
culture to the western world in the way of foreignization translation. Pearl Buck’s translation of All 
Men Are Brothers is the best interpretation of her translation ethics: “In fact, I have no academic 
interest in translating this novel. I am only interested in the wonderful story of the original and its 
wonderful way of telling it. Besides, I have no other purpose. I try my best to translate it directly 
because in my opinion, the language style of Chinese is the most suitable for this work. What I do is 
to make the translation as close as possible to Chinese. I want to make readers who do not understand 
Chinese feel dreamily when reading the translation that they are Reading the original.”[5] In order to 
preserve and transplant the cultural image of the original work, Pearl Buck tried to use literal 
translation from beginning to end, including the translation of nicknames. Under the condition of 
Pearl Buck's “literal translation” style, the readers can understand the meaning of the nickname 
according to the context and the deeds of the characters. 

3.2 The Inadequacy of Nickname Translation 
However, the meaning of a title is not necessarily a simple addition of the meanings of the 

individual words that make up the title. The reason why Pearl Buck’s verbatim translation of some 
nicknames has not been criticized by the academic community is mainly because the overall meaning 
of some nicknames is not far from the literal image, which does not cause difficulties in understanding. 
However, the Outlaws of the Marsh is a long novel. The connotation of the words is often supported 
by clear intertextuality within the text, and the contextual information accounts for a large proportion. 
If we only stay at the literal level or blindly apply the foreignization translation method, the readers 
will not understand the nicknames at the beginning, which requires the readers to slowly understand 
and accept them in the subsequent description of the specific events of the characters. Furthermore, 
sometimes this acceptance may be passive, and translators in the new era should make great efforts 
in the acceptance and understanding of nicknames if they want to turn passivity into initiative when 
translating nicknames. In fact, the strategy of foreignization can break through the convention of the 
target language and retain the exotic flavor of the original text. However, without being combined 
with the concept of the work itself as a whole and the cultural customs of the nation, it will often 
make readers feel contradictory or confused when reading, and cannot give full play to the role of 
foreignization translation in cultural intervention then. In the original work of Outlaws of the Marsh, 
there are many heroes with different personalities. There are 108 heroes in Liangshan alone, each of 
whom has a nickname. In addition to the numerous official titles involved in the book, the author may 
fail to give a pertinent translation of all characters’ nicknames for a time. It can neither be translated 
literally word by word, which makes readers in English speaking countries confused, nor blindly cater 
to the target language regardless of cultural factors. The nickname of a character is the common result 
of society and culture. The specific social and cultural context has given birth to people’s dramatic 
names for different characters. Because Pearl Buck grew up in a multi-cultural environment, it will 
inevitably have a lifelong impact on her creation. In a word, the translated version of Outlaws of The 
Marsh shows an obvious tendency of foreignization, which is intended to guide the target readers to 
approach the original and faithfully reflect the cultural connotation of the original. From the 
perspective of the application of foreignization translation strategies, the choice of vocabulary, the 
arrangement of word order and the origin of allusions are all important manifestations. The following 
conclusions can be drawn: Modern translators should not only follow the principle of combining the 



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experiences and characteristics of the characters themselves, but also keep the connotation of Chinese 
culture and reflect the foreignized translation style. 

3.3 The Intention of This Study on Nickname Translation 
The nickname of a character is closely related to their industry, personality, image and skills, and 

becomes the main factor in shaping the character's temperament. Many scholars have made in-depth 
research on the nicknames of the Outlaws of the Marsh, mostly from the research of nicknames and 
the exploration of different styles of comparative works. Some of the nicknames are derived from 
animal names, such as Gongsun Sheng, the “Dragon in the Clouds” and Lin Chong, the “The Leopard 
Headed”, some are based on the appearance and image characteristics (such as Zhu Tong, the “The 
Beautiful Bearded” and Du Qian, the “Eagle Who Flutters Against the Sky”),some are based on their 
personality characteristics (such as “The Fire In the Thunder Clap” Qin Ming and “The Swift 
Vanguard” Suo Chao), some are based on their own specialties (such as “The Magic Messenger” Dai 
Zong and “The Magic Scribe” Xiao Rang), and some are based on the weapons used (such as “The 
Great Sword” Guan Sheng and “The Double Clubs” Hu Yanzhuo), and even their identity Professions 
and even celebrities (such as “The Tattooed Priest” Lu Zhishen, "The Hairy Priest" Wu Song, 
“Little Li-Kuan” Hua Rong, “The lesser Duke” Lv Fang) are nicknamed.[5] This paper studies the 
nicknames of the characters in the Outlaws of the Marsh from the perspective of national culture and 
the life of the characters. The nicknames of the characters in Outlaws of the Marsh have been praised 
and tasted by the later generations. The nicknames of the heroes in the Outlaws of the Marsh have 
profound national cultural characteristics. “The author gives each hero a distinctive nickname and 
make it almost inseparable from the characters in the whole novel”. Nicknames are characters, which 
reflect the author’s feelings for them. “It reflects the aesthetic characteristics of the Han nationality”. 
The translator should reflect this point. Xu Xueping pointed out the shortcomings in the translation 
of the nicknames of heroes in Sha’s translation of the Water Margin from the perspective of cross-
cultural communication. The first is the lack of understanding of the original text [6]. As one of 
China's four classics, it is inevitable that literal and cultural translation errors caused by historical 
reasons will occur in the translation of nicknames. The allusions of the nicknames are not sufficiently 
explained. The blind pursuit of fluency in reading leads to unnecessary deviation in understanding. 
The translation needs to be accurate and appropriate.  

The translation of nicknames cannot be separated from the expression of color. Expressive color 
refers to the component attached to the meaning part of the vocabulary concept to express the specific 
feelings given by the person or the context. There are various kinds of expression colors, including 
emotion color, attitude color, evaluation color, image color, style color, tone color, etc. How to add 
expression color in nickname translation is a major difficulty for translators today, which tests the 
professionalism of translators[7]. 

Here we give examples of the translation of the names of different characters of Pearl Buck. For 
example, although “Little Li-Kuan” Hua Rong's name comes from allusions, it is limited to space 
introduction and other objective reasons. Pearl Buck’s introduction of the nickname here takes the 
form of Pinyin, and uses the alienation method stiffly, which may be an inappropriate nickname for 
foreign readers who do not understand the deeds of Li Guang, a historical hero of the ancient Western 
Han Dynasty in China. Li Guang is known as “flying general”, and Hua Rong’s image is also 
consistent with it. With a silver helmet and armor, he is good at riding inferior horses, can open a 
hard bow, and has a silver gun in his hand. He has an amazing martial art. He can shoot a good arrow 
and can walk through the Yang with hundreds of steps. People love his martial art and compare him 
to Li Guang, a famous general in the Han Dynasty. Therefore, people in the Jianghu give him the 
reputation of “Xiao Li Guang”. However, in all chapters of the Outlaws of the Marsh, there is no 
detailed introduction to the hero Li Guang. Readers will not understand the origin of this translation 
for a while. Why must we use the hero Li Guang to analogy Hua Rong? This will inevitably affect 
the process of reading and tasting the role. Lacking the background information, readers will 
inevitably have difficulties understanding this character. Looking at every big and small battle of Hua 



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Rong, his archery is excellent, and he can take hundreds of steps through the Yang straight to the 
head of the enemy general, which is very similar to flying General Li Guang. Therefore, we can 
directly translate its name as marksman, which means a hero who is good at archery. This will make 
readers have a preliminary impression on Hua Rong through nicknames in the process of reading, 
and this preliminary impression will guide readers to shape the overall image of Hua Rong in the 
subsequent reading process of the work, especially in the appearance of Hua Rong and the subsequent 
key battles. This is how Hua Rong’s appearance is introduced in the original work. When people 
passed by the opposite mountain, Lu Fang and Guo Sheng competed, and the colorful ribbons on the 
two painted halberds were tangled. Hua Rong shot an arrow to separate the two halberds, which 
surprised everyone. After going to Liangshan, Chao Gai didn't believe it. Just as a flock of geese flew 
across the sky, Hua Rong said that he would shoot the head of the third goose. Where the bow opened, 
the strings rang and the geese fell. From then on, people all over the mountain admired Hua Rong. 
Later, Hua Rong followed the Liangshan people to rob the Dharma field in Jiangzhou, outwit the 
inaction army, shot the red light in the Zhu’s Park, killed Xue Yuanhui in the attack on Gaotang 
Prefecture, and shot Vice General Li Cheng in the attack on Daming mansion. It can be said that he 
made great achievements in the war. In particular, his exquisite archery is a major feature of this hero.  

Another example is the translation of “desperate Sanlang Shi Xiu”, which will make readers 
misunderstand. Not only readers in the western literary circle, but also readers who have read the 
Outlaws of the Marsh in China will feel a little puzzled. In this regard, Pearl Buck translated it into 
“the one who wants not his life”, meaning a person who doesn't even want his life. Both Western 
readers and Chinese readers will have doubts here. In addition, the nickname does not express the 
central thoughts and feelings of the characters in a concise and comprehensive way, and may even 
distort the understanding of the characters to a certain extent. In the 44th chapter of the work, Shi Xiu 
said when he introduced himself that he had learned some skills of cudgels from primary school, and 
he was also a very persistent and stubborn person. He would lend a hand to anything that is unfair. 
As long as he takes action, he will certainly do his best, so people call him desperate Sanlang. The 
original meaning of the word “desperate Sanlang” is a person who is courageous and not afraid of 
death when fighting a war, or who will do his best to do things. From the deeds of Shi Xiu, we can 
see that this nickname is very suitable for him, and how should the translator find a balance between 
“being desperate” and “being not afraid of death” so as not to cause contradiction in meaning and 
weaken the characterization of the characters, Therefore, it is suggested to use Desperate Sanlang to 
describe Shi Xiu. The image of a young man who is conscientious and responsible and works hard 
comes into sight. The translator should accurately understand and fully transform the information 
content “We should also focus on highlighting its national cultural characteristics”. In translation 
methods, foreignization is preferred “The cultural information of the original text should be retained 
to the maximum extent”. The principle of equality should be fully reflected in cultural exchanges. 
This paper is of great benefit to us in objectively evaluating the English translation of nicknames and 
translating them well. Other scholars like Gu and Yi also discussed the translation of nicknames in 
their three comparative studies of the English translation of Outlaws of the Marsh [8].  

4. Conclusion 
In short, any translation has the translator’s aesthetic, cognitive and ethical tendencies. The 

translation of nicknames in Pearl Buck’s Outlaws of the Marsh shows the translator’s distinctive 
characteristics. Pearl Buck’s translation style demonstrates a beautiful picture of the Chinese culture. 
It is noteworthy that the translator's pursuit of “extreme restoration” runs through the translation, 
showing the translator’s language proficiency of both Chinese and English. Pearl Buck’s dual cultural 
identity enables her to enhance communication between Chinese and Western cultures, and urges her 
to keep the flavor of the original works as much as possible in the translation of nicknames. As a 
result, she can convey the original Chinese culture to Western readers. When we look for reasonable 
factors from the translation of Outlaws of the Marsh, it is indispensable to study the translator’s habits, 



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behaviors and translation strategies in the English translation of classics under the new situation, 
which in return help to build China’s foreign discourse system[4].  

At the same time, we should face up to the phenomenon of mistranslation in the translation of 
Pearl Buck and adopt a tolerant attitude of translation criticism, foreign countries, and explore the 
discourse construction path of Chinese culture and human civilization. We need to affirm the 
contribution of the translated version of the Outlaws of the Marsh to the spread of Chinese language 
and culture; It is necessary to pay attention to the inappropriate translation of some nicknames. We 
express our understanding and make improvements, namely, we should not only combine the 
experiences with characteristics of the characters themselves, but also retain the connotation of 
Chinese culture, reflect the alienated translation style, and achieve the purpose of spreading Chinese 
culture. The translation of the Outlaws of the Marsh sheds light on finding new ways to spread 
Chinese culture. Under the vision of globalization and the community with a shared future for 
mankind, China should adhere to the cultural concept of “harmony but difference”, actively build a 
foreign discourse system that integrates China and foreign countries, and explore the discourse 
construction path of Chinese culture and human civilization.  

References 
[1] Zhao Chenhui & Zhou Ping. (2016). Comparison of the translation of Pearl Buck and Shabori's "Water 

Margin". Journal of Jiangsu Institute of Technology (01), 15-19. 
[2] Zhang Haiyan, Huang Wei & Wang Chengfeng. (2020). Research on Foreignization Translation 

Strategies under the Principle of Faithfulness: Taking Pearl Buck's English Translation of "Water Margin" 
as an example. Journal of Liaoning University of Technology (Social Science Edition) (02), 72 -75. 

[3] Tu Binglan. (2011). A Comparison of Ethical Differences Between Chinese and Western Translation. 
Journal of Central South University of Forestry and Technology (Social Science Edition) (05), 68-70. 

[4] Zhao Xiangyun.(2021). Research on Translator Habits and Translation Strategies of Pearl Buck's English 
Translation of "Water Margin". Journal of Zhengzhou University of Light Industry (Social Science 
Edition) (06), 78-85. 

[5] Buck PS. All Men Are Brothers [M]. New York: The John Day, 1933 
[6] Xu Xueping. (2001). On the English translation of heroic nicknames in Sand's translation of "Water 

Margin". Journal of Zhanjiang Normal University (05). 
[7] Liu Yan. (2009). A Study of Appellations in "Water Margin" (Master's Thesis, Shandong Normal 

University). 
[8] Guo Mei & Yi Ge. (2006). Three Comparative Studies of English Translation of "Water Margin". 

Changjiang Academic (04), 91-96. 


	1. Introduction
	2. Literature Review
	2.1 Pearl S. B’s All Men Are Brothers
	2.2 Nicknames in All Men Are Brothers
	2.3 Foreignization Theory

	3. Results and Discussion
	3.1 Pearl Buck’s translation strategy and original intention
	3.2 The Inadequacy of Nickname Translation
	3.3 The Intention of This Study on Nickname Translation

	4. Conclusion
	References