Mixed translation strategy is commonly used by translators during translation. And foreignization and domestication, being extremes in their features and functions, often co-exist in same piece of translated work. Scholars raised translation theories trying to offer explanations on translation phenomena, but most of them may only be general ones, and may not be applicable to individual phenomena within a single work. Gutt raised the relevance-theoretical framework from the relevance theory developed by Sperber and Wilson that gives a different insight into this issue. The theory, which is originally a theory of communication, tries to explain translation from the point of view of competence and brings translators' awareness to problems that may lead to failure in communication, thus enabling them to adopt a more effective way of presenting a translation to achieve communication success. A case analysis has been conducted using the theoretical framework on two English translations of 《阿Q正傳》 (The Story of Ah Q). It is concluded that in the pursuit of the principle of relevance, the theory can help to understand the application of translation strategies on individual situations. It provides guidelines on determining a translation method in producing an effective translation in terms of communicativeness and faithfulness. Key words: foreignization, domestication, relevance theory, principle of relevance