1.2The Significance and Purpose of this Thesis

On the one hand, study on translations of Chinese literary works is very important for spreading culture and Hong Lou Meng is a significant classical novel of China. Analyzing the past English versions of Hong Lou Meng can spur the better translations of this classical novel. On the other hand, though, the translation for Hong Lou Meng began about 180 years ago and now have over 60 different translated versions of Hong Lou Meng, the studies on translated versions of Hong Lou Meng are relatively few and achievements are few. The reasons for few studies on translations of Hong Lou Meng may be that this novel is too long, too difficult to understand and has strong and complex artistic sense. However, the studies on translation of names in Hong Lou Meng are even fewer. So, study on characters’ names in Hong Lou Meng is necessary and should be more and the results achieved in this thesis may have some help for later studies.