“Iron Child” is a short story written by Mo Yan in 1991. Its translation is made by American Sinologist
Goldblatt. Based on the theory of literary defamiliarization, the paper analyzed the effects of defamiliarization
in terms of culture-loaded words, perspective and character image. It is found that in the process of translation,
Goldblatt adopts various means such as literal translation, free translation, addition and rewriting to retain and
express the strangeness to the greatest extent. The translator’s work reflects his substantial ability to deal with
Mo Yan’s unique local language, the important narrative perspective of “the fence” in the text, and the novel and
mysterious image of “iron child”. At the same time, due to the translator’s lack of knowledge about the background
of the times and local culture, there are occasional mistranslations, but one flaw cannot obscure the splendor of
the jade. On the whole, the defamiliarization technique in texts highlights the local characteristics of the original
text and reflects the translator’s superb creativity.