This article aims to explore David Hawke and John Minford's translation of "Hong Lou Meng," written by Cao XueQin, focusing on its cultural perspectives. The translation was in five volumes, titled The Story of the Stone and published by Penguin Groups from 1973-86. As Hawkes professed in the preface, "My one abiding principle has been to translate everything," he had taken measures like text amplification and appendixes to translate and relate Chinese culture for an English readership. This article will examine the strategies and ethics of Hawkes's mission as a cultural translator, using the four translation norms proposed by Andrew Chesterman- expectancy norm, relation norm, communication norm and accountability norm- in a critical way, framed by Appiah's proposition of "Thick Translation" and the reflections of ethnographers as translators of culture. Finally, it is argued that translators should always be conscious of the pitfalls in cultural translation and that all translation should be done in a self-critical and self-reflexive attitude.