Abstract/Resume I. Introduction II. Understanding The Gadfly and its author III. China's dominant ideology and literary system in the 1950s IV. Ideological manipulation in literary translation in the 1950s V. The canonization of The Gadfly in China 5.1 The decision to translate The Gadfly 5.2 Rewriting The Gadfly at the textual level 5.3 Deletion 5.4 Misrepresentation 5.5 Annotation 5.6 Rewriting paratextual documents VI. New interpretations of The Gadfly in the 21st century 6.1 New translation and criticism 6.2 TV series and the play of The Gadfly VII. Conclusion REFERENCES