A Critical Review of Recent Developments in Theatre Translation Studies and Future Directions for Chinese Researchers

This article reviews the recent literature on theatre translation, concentrating on the contribution and the unsolved problems of the "practitioners' turn", which occurred around 2000 in the Western research circles.The author proposes that in order to obtain breakthroughs, Chinese translation scholars need to pay more attention to this particular field of translation studies, especially the study of the process of staging translated playtexts, by taking a descriptive and more organized approach that is grounded in theoretical frameworks.Also more emphasis needs to be laid on empirical and historical studies, particularly of canonized works and historically important events.Finally, Chinese researchers need to take more active part in international exchanges.By exploring the aforementioned aspects, Chinese theatre translation scholars can add to the existing historiography of theatre translation (and translation theatre) and complement the findings and angles of their Western counterparts.