“After Seventy Years of Sleep”: Revisiting the First Chinese Translation ofRip Van Winkle

"After Seventy Years of Sleep" (1872), published in Shen Bao, a newspaper in Shanghai, was the first Chinese translation of Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle.The work as a "rewriting" of the original short story has not only set a unique "example" in modern Chinese translation, but also witnessed the bud of modern consciousness in comparative literature.Up to now, the academics both at home and abroad have paid little attention to it.By revisiting the Chinese translation in its modern historical and cultural context, this paper analyses the "experiment" in translation and its transcultural significance, evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of its translation strategy-"de-foreignization", and finally discusses the pioneering consciousness of comparative literature in modern China.