ABSTRACT This paper presents an overview of how paratext was affected by cultural factors in the Korean and Chinese version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, one of the bestselling novels in children literature, is popular in Korea and China. Paratext, surrounding the main text, contains cultural complications. Scholars have started to recognize the importance of it. Publishers consider paratext as a crucial part since it has commercial power to draw readers’ attention. From the perspective of translators, paratext is a useful tool to bridge the gap between source text and target text as a mediator. Translators who positioned in between target language and source language must rewrite the text to be read well as if it was originally …show more content…
Both versions include different roles of paratext, and it plays in different places. This research will discuss of role of paratext of two versions. In addition, the relationship between cultural background and paratext also will be analyzed. The need for this study is twofold: First is the lack of the in-depth comparison between Chinese and Korean translation versions of literature based on the paratext. Korea and China are major countries representing the Oriental culture or Eastern culture in Asia. However, both nations also possess their own unique features such as politics, economy and culture which are different from one another. This Study is to compare the two different language versions and explain the reasons based on the cultural background and based on the point of paratext. Secondly, the study focuses on the paratext, not the main text of the book. Translation of children’s book is characterized by strong intervention by the translators to bridge the gap. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the lack of the world experience and cognitive development of children. In this sense, paratext helps young readers to improve understanding. However paratext is completely manipulated by the publishers and the translators. Some of paratext does not appear on the original version and it was not intended by authors. Different strategies of the paratext might influence reader’s reading. In addition, paratext set by the publishers and translators reflect the readers’ cultural characteristic to win in a large readership. The hypothesis is that the cultural background influences on paratext in the book. This research study has a significant meaning by analyzing America as a representative of Western culture and two Eastern culture representatives, Korea and