"Love story" of Mi Shi and Ma Li: the first translation of Pushkin's "The captain's daughter" in China

The article reveals the features of the first translation of the novel "Captain's Daughter" by A.S. Pushkin's into Chinese, carried out by a well-known translator Ji Yihei in 1903. The authors examine how and why the characters' names, the system of images, and the plot situations of the story change. As a result, they come to the conclusion that these changes are due to the peculiarities of the perception of fiction by the Chinese intellectuals of the 20th century. In the translation of Pushkin's work the Chinese readership stereotypes existing at that time are reproduced, the traditional symbolism of Chinese culture is widely used. These contributed to its inclusion of national literature and folklore into the context and, as a result, facilitated its understanding.