History of Translation Studies 6

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学期论文（结合学期所学，撰写一篇5000以上单词的英文论文，按照专业杂志的格式，题目、摘要、关键词和参考文摘需要英中，文章英）。学期论文成绩占70%，平时成绩（含课堂表现、展示及作业）占30%。

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Foreignization and Domestication

Domestication and Foreignization in Translation: Functionalist Approaches Explained 汤蓓 Tang Bei

Abstract

Translation is purposeful and trans-cultural communication. And domestication and foreignization are two strategies to cope with cultural differences in translation. This thesis attempts to explain the choice of demestication and foreignization in translation by case studies from the perspective of functionalist approaches.

Key words: domestication; foreignization;function

摘要

翻译是一种有目的的跨文化交际，处理翻译的文化差异可以使用两种方法：归化和异化。本文从德国功能派翻译理论出发，利用该理论的主要观点，从翻译功能的角度分析译者在翻译过程中对翻译的两大策略——归化与异化的选择做出解释。

关键词：归化；异化；功能

The Application of Domestication and Foreignization in Howard Goldblatt’s Translation of Mo Yan’s Works 欧蓉 Ou Rong

  摘要：一直以来，中国文学的独特风格在世界文学中备受瞩目，在流向海外的过程中，翻译成为了跨文化沟通的桥梁与传播的媒介。莫言是中国著名代表作家，2012年获得诺贝尔文学奖，外国对其作品的翻译研究从未断过。葛浩文是美国著名中国当代文学翻译家，莫言所有作品的英译本都来自于他。本文旨在通过分析葛浩文在翻译莫言作品过程中体现的归化和异化，从而指出其过人之处，从而思考中国文学作品被英译时应注意的事项，加强与提高不同文化之间交流的理解度与流畅度。  

关键词：归化；异化；葛浩文；莫言的作品  

Abstract: For a long time, owing to the unique style, Chinese literature has attracted much attention among world literature. In the process of flowing overseas, translation has become a bridge of cross-cultural communication and a medium of transmission. Mo Yan is a well-known representative Chinese writer, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012. The study on his works about translation abroad has never stopped. Howard Goldblatt is a famous American  translator specializing in contemporary Chinese literature, and all English versions of Mo Yan's works are from him. Through analyzing the domestication and foreignization that reflects in the translated version of Mo Yan's works by Howard Goldblatt, the thesis aims to point out the extraordinary of this application and consider the matters that should be paid attention to when translating Chinese literary works into English to strengthen the understanding and improve the fluency of the exchange between different cultures.  

Key words: Domestication; Foreignization; Howard Goldblatt; Mo Yan’s works  

1.Introduction

2. Domestication and Foreignization

2.1. The Definition of Domestication

2.2 The Definition of Foreignization

3. Howard Goldblatt’s Translation Strategies on Chinese Literary Works

4. The Embodiment of Domestication and Foreignization in Mo Yan’s works

5. The Enlightenment under the Application for Translation

6.Conclusion

Bibliography--Ou Rong (talk) 15:39, 6 November 2020 (UTC)Ou Rong

Domestication and Foreignization in the Course of Translation Under the Direction of Skopos TheorY 谭星越 Tan Xingyue

谭星越 Tan Xingyue,202020080642.

Abstract

Domestication and foreignization were put forward by Lawrence Venuti, a famous translation theorist in America, in his book The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation in 1995. Domesticating translation places emphasis on the target culture, which makes the original text more easily understood by the target-language readers, while foreignizing translation aims to produce the foreignness and cultural characteristics in the source text as much as possible. Skopos theory was proposed by Reiss and Vermeer in the 1970s, which held that the purpose of translation determines the translation strategy. This thesis takes Skopos Theory as the basis of theoretical research, and analyzes the application and practice of domestication and foreignization in the course of translation.

Key Words

Skopos Theory, domestication, foreignization

题目

目的论视角下归化和异化在翻译过程中的应用

Study of domestication and foreignization in cross cultural translation 周罗平 Zhou Luoping

Abstract

Language is the carrier of culture and the medium of communication between cultures. Language and culture are closely connected. Nowadays, cultural exchanges are becoming increasingly frequent; hence, it’s particularly important to use translation to convey information between different cultures. Translation is a process not only about transforming one language into another, but also about noticing the history and cultural tradition behind languages. Therefore, in cross-cultural translation, translators should master two methods to deal with culture: domestication and foreignization. This article will introduce the two translation strategies of domestication and foreignization and explore how to reasonably use them in cross-cultural translation.

Key words

Domestication Foreignization Cross-cultural Translation

摘要

语言是文化的载体，是文化间传播和交流的媒介。语言和文化之间密不可分。在文化交流日益频繁的今天，用翻译去传递不同文化之间的信息就显得格外重要。翻译不仅仅是将一种语言转化为另一种语言，更要关注不同语言背后所承载的历史背景和文化传统，故在跨文化翻译中，译者应掌握处理文化的两种翻译方法：归化和异化。本文将系统地介绍归化和异化这两种翻译策略，并探究在跨文化翻译中如何选择这两种翻译方法。

关键词

归化 异化 跨文化翻译--Zhou Luoping (talk) 00:55, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

Introduction

Influenced by different geographical environment, historical development and other factors, different nations and countries form their unique culture. Translation plays an important role in cross-cultural communication. The translator as the main body of translation activities should convey the culture of one language in another language. In this process, the translator is faced with how and to what extent to show the cultural connotation of source language; therefore, the translator is bound to face the choice between domestication and foreignization. Domestication, oriented by the target language culture, aims to eliminate the strangeness brought about by the source text, but it also reduces the opportunities for the target readers to contact with foreign cultures. While foreignization, oriented by the source language culture, aims to retain the unique style and cultural characteristics of the source language, but it will increase the reading difficulty. The best way is to combine domestication with foreignization. Therefore, the translator should fully consider the type of the text and the readers of the translation to choose the translation strategies and methods reasonably. This paper will be divided into five parts. The first part is the introduction of this paper. The second part is the introduction of domestication and foreignization, as well as a brief introduction of the representatives of domestication and foreignization. The third part is an analysis of the factors that influence the choice of domestication and foreignization. The fourth part introduces the translation methods under domestication and foreignization. The fifth part is the conclusion.

Domestication and Foreignization

The terms domestication and foreignization were first put forward by Lawrence Venuti in his work The Translator’s Invisibility. The two concepts of foreignization and domestication are defined by Venuti based on Schleiermacher’s distinction between the two different translation orientations. In his speech "On the Different Methods of Translating" in June 1813 Schleiermacher clearly pointed out that there can be only two ways of Translating. Either by keeping the author as still as possible, so as to lead the reader to the author; the other is to keep the reader as still as possible, thereby guiding the author to approach the reader (Jiang 2016). Venuti, on the basis of Schleiermacher’s distinction, called the former foreignization and the latter domestication.

Introduction of Domestication According to Venuti, domestication is actually an ethnocentric practice, bringing foreign texts into the cultural values of the target language and thus “bringing the author back home” (2009).Therefore, in the process of translation, the translator follows the target language culture and adopts conservative methods to assimilate the original text so as to meet the needs of the target language readers. In this sense, the biggest advantage of the domestication is that it make the translated works more easily accepted by the target language readers and that readers can better understand the connotation of the source text. In addition, In addition, domestication well reflects the coexistence of different cultures in the process of communication, and shows that translators seek common ground when facing culture differences and conflicts. Of course, every coin has two sides. Domestication translation method also has its shortcomings. When translators adopt domesticating method, they tend to assimilate part of the original content with different language style or unique national culture, which makes the translation lose the characteristics of the original text, thus affecting the communication and spread of different cultures and hinders readers' understanding of foreign culture. Eugene Nida is the representative figure advocating domestication. Nida's functional equivalence theory or dynamic equivalence theory shows that he is a supporter of domestication translation. His dynamic equivalence theory shows that he pursues the most natural equivalence translation. He once said that “dynamic equivalence is therefore to be defined in terms of the degree to which the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to it in substantially the same manner as the receptors in the source language” (Nida 2004). In other words, dynamic equivalence means that the reader's response to the translation is consistent with that of the original. Nida's dynamic equivalence theory fully considers the reader's language culture and the reader's ability to appreciate the translation. Therefore, in the course of translating, the translator should take the completely natural and smooth language expression as the goal. In order to make the translation natural and smooth, the translator must make some adjustments to the original text. Some heterogeneous cultures which are not accepted by readers should be eliminated as much as possible. Nida's dynamic equivalence theory takes the reader into full consideration. It aims to eliminate the readers' strangeness to the original content and let readers better understand the thought and meaning of the original text, which precisely reflects the characteristics of domestication translation.

Introduction of Foreignization According to Venuti, foreignization is an ethnodeviant practice, keeping language and cultural differences of the original texts as far as possible and thus sending the reader abroad (2009). In other words, in order to show the cultural characteristics of the source work, translators use foreignising method during the translation to retain the characteristics of the source text and try to keep the writing techniques used by the author of the source language. Hence, for the readers of the target language, the translation is exotic and unfamiliar. Same to the domestication, foreignization also has its advantages and disadvantages. Foreignization, by transplanting the culture of the source language into the culture of the target language, enriches the culture of the target language to a great extent. For example, the Chinese phrase “武装到牙齿” is translated as “armed to the teeth”, which greatly spreads Chinese culture and enriches the English and Chinese language culture. Of course, foreignization also has its limitations. Some cultural differences and language differences are difficult to overcome. If foreignization is adopted blindly in the process of translation, there will produce some translations that readers cannot understand and accept, and translation will also lose its function of cultural communication. Schleiermacher and Venuti are strong supporters of foreignization. Schleiermacher’s preferred strategy is to accommodate the reader to the author. He claims that translations need not be same as the original author writes in the source language. The translation does not conform to the general expression habits of the target language. He believes that a translator who knows the target language can help target readers who are not proficient in the foreign language but have a strong understanding of the original text. In order to achieve this goal, the translator must adopt the foreignization translation method, emphasize the value of heterogeneous culture, and ensure the faithfulness to the original text by subordinating the words in the target text to the source language (Jiang 2016). In this way, the translation can be faithful to the meaning of the original text and can introduce heterogeneous cultures and concepts to readers of target language. In his book The Translator's Invisibility, Venuti expressed his understanding and support for foreignization translation in detail. He believes that foreignization translation is a kind of translation strategy that preserves and highlights the heterogeneity of the original text in the translation. First, he believes that foreignization is reflected in the selection of translation materials. He mainly aims at the classic translation of literature and culture of the target language. In fact, in the process of foreignising translation, the translator chooses a foreign text which is different from the mainstream culture of the target language, which can change the cultural composition of the target language. Second, foreignization translation is reflected in the language used by the translator in the process of translation. This means that in the process of translation, the closer the language style of the translation is to the language style of the original, the more heterogeneous the readers will feel. Moreover, Venuti advocates that in the process of translation, the translator should use words that are not commonly used and non-standard. Translators should mix slang, neologism or archaic words to achieve heterogeneous effects. In this way, the foreignization style of translation highlights the heterogeneity of foreign texts and challenges and resists the mainstream culture of the target language. Thirdly, foreignization translation is embodied in cultural alienation. By highlighting the cultural differences caused by language differences, foreignization translation promotes the development of cultural diversity, helps to resist the hegemony of European and American culture, and helps to promote the development of culture and language of weak and small nations. Fourthly, foreignising translation highlights and enhances the status of the translator, which changes the phenomenon that the smooth translation makes the translator invisible in the past, thus promoting translation research to gradually move to the academic center (Jiang 2016). Venuti believes that smooth translation has long occupied the mainstream position in the history of western translation, and the fluency of translation has become the standard to judge whether a translation is good or not. Venuti challenged and questioned this phenomenon. He said that the smooth translation covered up the translator's intervention and interpretation of the original text, and covered up the language and cultural differences of the original work. Therefore, he put forward the concept of resistant translation to expound his translation thoughts. Resistant translation refers to a translation strategy that preserves some heterogeneity in literary translation. The object of resistance is the prevailing translation thought in British and American culture, that is, fluent translation is acceptable translation (Fang 2011). Venuti challenged the dominant position of British and American culture and introduced the idea of weak culture by advocating resistant translation. Translation is not only a process of seeking similarities between languages and cultures, but also a process of facing the differences between languages and cultures. Translators cannot completely and thoroughly eliminate these differences. Therefore, a good translation must be the blending and collision of different cultures, from which the readers can better understand the cultural diversity.

The Application of Domestication and Foreignization in the Translation of Chinese Allegorical Sayings 龚钰冕 Gong Yumian

Abstract

Chinese Xiehouyu (allegorical saying) is a unique part of Chinese folk culture, and people are familiar with it. The translation of Chinese and English allegorical sayings is a kind of cross-cultural communication activity that spreads the Chinese national language and culture to the English world. In depth study of the connotation and translation methods of Chinese allegorical sayings has played a significant role in promoting and improving the Chinese-English translation and cross-cultural communication between Chinese and English. Based on the theory of domestication and foreignization, this paper attempts to analyze the types and components of Chinese allegorical sayings, and to explore their translation strategies.

摘要

汉语歇后语是中国民俗文化特有的一部分，人们耳熟能详。汉英歇后语翻译是一种将中华民族语言文化传播到英语世界的跨文化交流活动，深入学习研究汉语歇后语的内涵和翻译方法，对汉英语言的互译和跨文化交际都起到了很好的促进和提高作用。本文试图用归化和异化理论出发，分析汉语歇后语的类型及其构成，探讨汉语歇后语的翻译策略。

Key words

Chinese Allegorical Sayings, domestication and foreignization, translation strategy

关键词

汉语歇后语；归化和异化；翻译策略

Title Translation

A Study on Movie Titles Translation from the Perspective of Skopos Theory 罗雨晴 Luo Yuqing

Abstract

With the continuous advancement of globalization, more and more foreign films are introduced into China continuously. China's film market is huge and Watching films has become a popular way of entertainment for Chinese. Various kinds of films emerge in endlessly so that film titles are particularly important. The film title is the eye of the film, the highlight and essence of a film. A good film title can successfully attract people's attention, stimulate the desire to watch, and bring them into the cinema, which is the purpose of English film title translation. From the perspective of Skopos Theory, this paper will analyze the characteristics and functions of film titles, all kinds of existing translations, and puts forward some translation methods of English film titles, hoping to be helpful to the translation of film title translation.

Key words

 English film title translation; Skopos Theory; translation methods

摘要

随着全球化进程的不断推进，越来越多的外国电影源源不断地涌入中国，中国电影市场巨大，看电影已成为一种广受欢迎的娱乐消遣方式，各种电影层出不穷，因此电影片名就显得尤为的重要。电影片名是电影的眼睛，是一部电影的亮点与精华所在。一个好的电影名可以成功吸引人的眼球，激发大众观看欲望，将大众带入电影院。而英语电影片名的翻译目的就在此。本文主要将从目的论的视角出发，分析电影片名的特点与作用，对各种现有译名的进行分析，就此提出一些英文电影片名的翻译方法，希望能对电影片名的翻译工作有所帮助。

关键词

英语电影片名翻译； 目的论; 翻译方法

I.Introduction

A film is like a book with pictures and sound. When reading books, we will imagine the scenes described in the books, while words in book will be presented in the form of images and sound in film. Most of films last about two hours. In these two hours, we can get in touch with something we are not familiar with in a relaxed way. Film brings us a variety of visual, auditory and other sensory pleasure. It is not only a way of entertainment, but also an important medium to spread culture. With the rapid development of economy, people pay more and more attention to the quality of life and cultural exchanges between different countries are closer than before. A large number of foreign films are pouring into China, trying to get a share of the Chinese market. Although there are close cultural exchanges, there are still cultural differences between China and the West. Therefore, the translation of film titles after the introduction of foreign films into China is very important. Although the translation of film titles seems to be a small project, it is not so easy to translate them well and to the point to let people can't wait to see the whole film. It is self-evident that the film title is the essence of a film. It not good enough to accurately summarizes the contents of the film, to attract the audience. The quality of the film title directly affects its dissemination in China, and its importance is self-evident.

This paper proposes a Skopos Theory approach to the translation of film titles. The ultimate goal of film title translation is to attract attention as much as possible on the premise of accurately conveying the content of the film. Skopos Theory can provide a reasonable explanation for those film titles that are not translated according to the traditional translation theory. The Skopos Theory put forward by Hans Vermeer is the core theory of functional translation theory. Compared with some previous translation theories, this theory has some breakthroughs. The purpose of translation carries through the whole process of translation, and the purpose determining method is its biggest feature, which gives the translator a lot of space to adopt the translation method that he thinks is suitable.

This thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter one serves as an introduction, presenting the importance of the translation of English film title translation, the adaptability of the Skopos Theory and the structure of the thesis.Chapter two is a general analysis of English film title translation, including film genres and features and functions of English film title translation. Chapter three is a general introduction of Skopos Theory, consisting of its development, concept and three basic principle. Chapter four analyzes the existing film title translation from the perspective of Skopos Theory, and comes to the methods of film title translation. Chapter five draws a conclusion finally.

Translation of Cultural Words

Translation of Culture-Loaded Words in Li Qingzhao's Ci-Poetry Based on Scopos Theory 周思庆 Zhou Siqing

周思庆 Zhou Siqing

Abstract

This paper attempts to illustrate the influence of Skopos theory on translation strategies and the influence of translation strategies on translation effect by analyzing the different translations of culture-loaded words in Li Qingzhao’s Ci-Poetry based on Scopos Theory according to Nida’s classification of culture-loaded words. This research is of great significance to refresh blood into the study of Li Qingzhao’s Ci Poems and promote excellent Chinese traditional culture to go abroad.

Key words

culture-loaded word, Li Qingzhao, Scopos Theory

摘要

本文主要以目的论为指导，以奈达对文化负载词的分类为依据，从对不同英译版本的李清照词中文化负载词的翻译进行分析，说明目的论对翻译策略的影响以及翻译策略对译文效果的影响，旨在为李清照词的英译研究注入新鲜血液，推动中国优秀传统文化走向世界。

关键词

文化负载词， 李清照， 目的论

Introduction

Li Qingzhao, is the representative of the graceful and restrained school well-known for her elegant, fresh and refined language as well as rich and vivid images. Her poetry is an unparalleled cultural treasure in the history of Chinese literature. Culture-loaded words are those words rich in cultural connotations. Nida divided culture-loaded words into five categories, namely ecological, material, social, religious and linguistic culture-loaded words. As the representative of the “German school”, Hans J. Vermeer proposed the Scopos Theory and continued the functionalist tradition. Analyzing the culture-loaded words in different translations of Li Qingzhao's Ci Poems according to Scopos theory is conducive for the readers to grasp the elegant style of Li Qingzhao's, to figure out the proper translation strategies, and to encourage more creation of excellent translation works.

Chapter 1 Introduction of Li Qingzhao and her Ci-Poetry

1.1 Brief introduction of Li Qingzhao

Li Qingzhao, a well-known poetess in Song Dynasty, is the only woman who is generally compared with the most outstanding poets. As a female writer, she suffered a lot in that unstable age full of oppression and discrimination, but still kept a resolute and resistant attitude toward life no matter how much turns and twists in the process of struggle. Li Qingzhao was born in a rich and cultured family in 1083. Thanks to her father Li Gefei, the Minister of Rites, and her well-educated mother, she had a peaceful and favorable circumstance in her childhood and received a good education, which paved the path for her literary career. Unlike most ignorant women in that age, she had great talent in many aspects, such as painting and music, especially writing. She was a versatile writer whose Ci Poems and prose are both excellent. Her contribution in literature earned great fame for herself.

She married to Zhao Mingcheng, the son of a vice-president of the Board of Rides when she was eighteen years old. The marriage life was happy and idyllic in the early years. They collected and appreciated rare books, paintings and antiques together. However, their peaceful and harmonious life was ruined by the invasion of the Jurchens in 1127. They were forced to fled to the southern areas and separated with each other. The bulk of precious collections, including the ancient paintings, vessels, and books, lost during the fugitive way. Her husband was dispatched to a new official post in Zhe Jiang province and died on the way. Since then, Li Qingzhao lived lonely and homelessly in endless sorrow. The miserable and painful life experience didn't destroy her poetry proposition but deepened the theme of her literary works. The concern for the fate of the masses and country showed her great integrity and patriotic passion.

1.2 Development and characteristics of Li Qingzhao's Ci-Poetry

As a literary form, Song Ci, also called Ci Poems or long-short lines, emerged in Tang Dynasty and popularized in Song Dynasty. Ci Poems revolved from a kind of folk music used for expressing the emotions through its original melody. Li Qingzhao is regarded as the representative of the graceful and restrained party.

Generally, Li Qingzhao's proposition of Ci Poems can be divided into two periods according to the critical historical events in Song Dynasty and her personal life experience. The former period works most depicted her delightful life as a young girl. The theme includes the praise of nature and beauty, her pure love to her husband, and the memories of the innocent childhood, such as Rumengling( 如 梦 令 ), Dian Jiangchun( 点 绛 唇 ), Jianzimulanhua( 减 字 木 兰 花 ) ， Cai Sangzi( 采 桑 子 ), Zuihuayin(醉花阴), Yijianmei(一剪梅) and so on. As for the latter period, her works changed dramatically because of the downfall of the Northern Song Dynasty as well as the death of her husband. The theme of her poems turned to homesickness, the grief for the instability of the nation and the melancholy meditation of the miserable life. She transmitted her feelings in the images implicitly rather than cry out her sorrow directly. The poems written in this period include Spring in Wulin(武陵春), Shengshengman(声声慢), Yongyule(永遇乐) and so on.

To conclude, her elegant and pure language and sensitive emotion were demonstrated in both of her literary period. Her Ci Poems are full of accurate and vivid images, leaving the readers a wide imagery space. No other poetess in Song Dynasty can replace her position in the Chinese history of literature.

Chapter 2 Introduction of Scopos theory

2.1 Historical development of Scopos theory

Functional approaches emerged in 1970s and developed through three stages: (1)Katharina Reiss introduced the functional category of translation criticism; (2) Hans J. Vermeer proposed Scopos theory; (3) Justa Holz-Manttari put forward the theory of translation action.

In the first stage, Katharina Reiss proposed the text function and translation strategy, which paves the way for the Scopos theory. The theory foundation of Reiss’s theory is the functional equivalence theory, which aims to establish a model of translation criticicm based on the functional relationship between source text and target text (Zhang Chenxiang, 2007:32). Katharina Reiss divided text into three categories: expressive text, informative text and vocative text. The proposal of functional translation theory signifies that translation study gradually get rid of static linguistic typologies.

In the second stage, Hans J. Vermeer established the initial theory of functional group, Scopos theory, further developing the functional translation theory. He pointed out that translation is a human activity and a kind of transformation. Every human activity has its purpose and will create certain consequence , a new situation or event or a new thing (Zhang Chenxiang, 2007:34). This is the origin of Scopos theory. Reiss mentioned that, “the source text can be assigned to a text type and a genre, and in making this assignment, the transoat0r can decide on the hierarchy of postulates which has to be observed during target-text production” (Reiss and Vermeer, 1984:196). Vermeer thinks that translators needn’t be restrained to certain translation method, instead, the translators should consider the purpose of translation and the psychology of the target audience and use the translation strategies flexibly. In the process of translation, the translator can adapt literal translation or free translation according to the situation to make sure the expected effect can be realized.

In the third stage, Justa Holz-Manttari developed Vermeer’s theory and proposed the theory of translation action 1n 1984. She avoid using the term “translation” and focus on the process of translation which concludes traditional translation and other text building activity. In Holz-Manttari’s model, translation is defined in a broader sense as “a complex action designed to achieve a particular purpose”, or an intercultural communication whose product is the target text which achieves appropriate function in a particular cultural context. According to the functional approach, all participants have certain functions or roles in the interaction. The TT addressees are crucial in specification of the purposes of translation(Nord, 2001:20).

2.2 Basic rules of Scopos theory

In the Scopos theory, there are three basic rules, namely skopos theory, coherence rule and fidelity rule. Among the three rules, scopos rule is the most significant one. “Each text is produced for a given purpose and should serve this purpose. The skopos rule thus reads as follows: translate/interpret/speak/write in a way that enables your text/translation to function in the situation in which it is used and with the people who want to use it and precissely in the way they want it to function.” This rule can help solve the contradiction between literal translation and free translation. It means that the choosing of translation strategies depends on translation purpose. When the scopos focuses on the original language, as long as the features of the original culture is well expressed, literal translation or even word for word translation can be adopted.

The coherence rule is also named intra-textual coherence by functionalists. It requires that the translated text should make sense on the communicative situation in which it is received. It specifies that a translation should be acceptable in a sense that it is coherent with the receivers’ situation (Reiss and Vermeer, 1984: 100) Being coherent means being “part of the receiver’s situation”, so the cultural aspects should be taken into consideration. Besides, the target readers’ culture-specific world-knowledge, expectations and communicative needs are also important factors which may affect the way of handing a text, translators ought analyze these factors carefully. (Li Zhao, 2011:24)

Since the source text is the offer of information , it should also be taken into account. Fidelity rule is also named “intertextual coherence”. This coherence balance the source text and the target text and the form and degree of such intertextual coherence are determined by the translator’s interpretation of the source text and the translation skopos. However, intertextual coherence is subordinate to intra-textual, and both of the two are subordinate to the skopos rule.

Chapter 3 Introduction of culture-loaded words

3.1 Definition of culture-loaded words

Since Bassnett and Lefervere put forward the concept of “cultural turn” in 1990, the interaction between translation and culture has been drawn more attention. During the five thousand years’ civilization, China has accumulated its unique culture due to the unique geographical locations, living environments, historical background, etc.

Many scholars has made different definitions to cultural loaded words. J. F Aixel gives these words another name “cultural-specific items” and defined them as: “some items appearing in the source text do not have equivalent items in the target reader’s cultural systems” (J. F Aixel, 1996:58). Later, Mona Baker defined culture-loaded words as: “The source-language word may express a concept which is totally unknown in the target culture. The concept in question may be abstract or concrete; it may relate to a religious belief, a social custom, or a type of food. Such concepts are often referred to as ‘cultural-specific’.”(Baker, 2004:21). This paper studies the translation of culture-loaded words according to Nida’s classification of cultural elements. Nida divided culture into five categories: ecological culture, material culture, social culture, religious culture and linguistic culture. This paper will analyze the culture-loaded words according to the five categories.

3.2 Classification of culture-loaded words

3.2.1 Ecological culture-loaded words

Culture develops in certain ecological environment, so different region has different culture. Ecological culture-loaded words refer to those words that reflect the distinctive geographical conditions, the natural surroundings, feature of the climate, plants and animals, etc. in a language. Even the connotations of the same thing in western and eastern culture are different or even opposite.

For example, the “west wind” in China is totally different from that in western countries. Because China lies in the Eastern Hemisphere, with mountains to the west and oceans to the east. This location makes it dry and cold in autumn and winter when the west wind blows. Therefore, the west wind in Chinese culture often refers to the cold wind in autumn an winter, which is often used to describe the desolate, cold, and sometimes also compared to the decadent force of the fall of the sun with a derogatory meaning. Such as “古道西风瘦马” in Ma Zhiyyuan’s 《天净沙·秋思》. On the contrary, Britain is located in the western hemisphere, the west Atlantic island, and the east is the continent of Europe. When the west wind blows from the Atlantic Ocean, Britain is in the season of revival. Therefore, in English culture, the west wind is the symbol of hope and strength. For example, the Ode to the West Wind, a famous British poem, reflects this meaning. Obviously, through the above analysis, we know that “西风” and the west wind have the same conceptual meaning but have very different associative meaning due to different ecological environment.

3.2.2 Material culture-loaded words

Material culture-loaded words include the words related to the economic life, daily supplies, commodities, food, transportation, etc. Different nations have different living habits, so the material products are quite different. For example: “旗袍”(qi pao), “麻将”(ma jiang),”馄饨”(Wonton), etc.

3.2.3 Social culture-loaded words

The tradition, custom, living habit, social activity, etc. All belong to the category of social culture. Due to different historical background, political feature, tradition and custom, the social culture-loaded words formed and developed. For instance, “重阳节”(chong yang jie) is a traditional Chinese festival to give the blessings to the old people, which is familiar to Chinese but unfamiliar to foreigners.

3.2.4 Religious culture-loaded words

Religious culture is composed by the religious faith and and ideology under the different nation’s cultural background, which demonstrate in the difference in psychology and language behavior. Chinese people advocate Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism whereas western people mainly believe in God. Therefore, the cross-cultural communication barriers and language translation barriers emerged. Religious culture-loaded words reflects the characteristics of religious beliefs, so it is quite difficult for the foreigners to understand the Chinese religious culture-loaded words. For example, western people believe in God while Chinese people believe in “天”(tian), “菩萨”(pu sa), “佛”(fo).

3.2.5 Linguistic culture-loaded words

Language as one part of culture also produces translation problems. Since the two languages belong to two different language systems, their different language features will be involved in translation. These particularities may be reflected in phonetics, morphemes, vocabulary and syntax. For example, reduplicative words and four-character words and expressions are frequently seen in Chinese but are rarely seen in English.

Chapter 4 The application of Scopos theory in the translation of culture-loaded words

Chinese culture and western culture are so different due to different geographical location and historical background. And these differences also reflect in the two language systems, which is also known as cultural gap. In the process of translating Li Qingzhao’s Ci-Poetry, the translator may face all kinds of problems due to the cultural gap. In this chapter, the focus is on analyzing the suitable translation strategies from the perspective of Scopos theory.

4.1 Translation of ecological culture-loaded words

(1)梨花欲谢恐难禁。(《浣溪沙》）

I am afraid pear blossoms cannot bear at all

—translated by Xu Yuanchong

O bright pods/ Of the pepper plant, you do not/ Need to bow and beg pardon./ I know you cannot hold back/ The passing day.

—translated by Kenneth Rexroth

Some plants and flowers have certain connotation in Chinese, which leaves the gap of further imagination. Snow is often compared to pear-blossom, which is a common metaphor in Chinese poetry, for example: “忽如一夜春风来，千树万树梨花开” is used to describe the beautiful snow-covered landscape. Here, Xu Yuanchong translated “梨花”into “pear blossoms”directly is to reproduce this often-used metaphor. Both the basic meaning and the cultural content have been well transmitted. Xu Yuanchong adopted literal translation to realize foreignization. In contrast, Kenneth Rexroth adopted demestication and free translation and translate “梨花” as “the pepper plant” to achieve the skopos of translation. Here, “the pepper plant” is used to serve as a substitution because it is a New Year decoration which shows the passion of spring. This passionate image can contrast the depressed mood of Li Qingzhao for the fleeting time.

(2)试问卷帘人，却道海棠依旧？（《如梦令》）

I ask the maid rolling up the screen./ “The same crab-apple tree,”she says, “is seen”

—translated by Xu Yuanchong

I asked my maid as she rolled up the curtains,/ “Are the begonias still the same?”

—translated by Kenneth Rexroth

In Chinese culture, “海棠” usually symbolizes bitter love. When people encounters twists and turns in love, they often use it to express the sad feeling of parting. Xu Yuanchong adopted literal translation and translated “海棠” into “crab-apple tree”, which maintain the traditional Chinese culture by employing foreignization. However, Kenneth Rexroth translated it into”begonias” by demestication, which makes this image more familiar to the target readers. The aim of Xu Yuanchong is to introduce Chinese culture to foreigners whereas the purpose of Kenneth Rexroth is to make the text be accepted by the taget readers, therefore, , sothe former uses foreignization but the latter uses demestication.

4.2 Translation of material culture-loaded words

(3)常记溪亭日暮 (《如梦令》)

I oft remember what a happy day/ We passed in creekside arbour when it glooming.

—translated by Xu Yuanchong

I remember in Hsi T’ing/ All the many times/ We got lost in the sunset.

—translated by Kenneth Rexroth

The meaning of “溪亭” can be interpreted as the name of a place in Ji’nan, Shandong Province or a pavilion by the river side. Therefore, different versions of this word appears according to the different understanding of this word. Xu Yuanchong translated it as “creekside arbour” by employing literal translation whereas Kenneth Rexroth translated it into “Hsi T’ing” according to its sound by using transliteration. The version “creekside arbour” is more acceptable by Chinese readers because it shows the basic meaning of this word. But the version “Hsi T’ing” is more understandable for foreigners because it’s just a name of a place.

(4)轻解罗裳，独上兰舟。(《一剪梅》)

My silk robe doffed, I float/ Alone in orchid boat

—translated by Xu Yuanchong

I open/ My silk dress and float alone/ On the orchid boat.

—translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Chung Ling

Generally speaking, “兰舟” refers to a small boat which is made of the trunk of a magnolia tree. However, both Xu Yuanchong and Kenneth Rexroth translated “兰舟” into “orchid boat” in order to reproduce the poetic language of the original text. If they translate it according to the literal meaning, the beautiful poetic language cannot be reproduced in the target language. So, they associated the boat with orchid, a kind of beautiful flower to achieve “literariness”, making poetry as poetic as possible.

4.3 Translation of social culture-loaded words

(5)海燕未来人斗草。(《浣溪沙》)

The swallows not yet come, a game of grass we play.

—translated by Xu Yuanchong

People are gathering wild flowers and herbs in the meadow.

—translated by Kenneth Rexroth

Viewed literally, “斗草” is mostly interpreted as “to fight with grass”. But actually, it refers to a particular custom on the Dragon Boat Festival according to the notes in various anthologies of Li Qingzhao. On the Dragon Boat Festival (the fifth day of May), people usually participate a kind of game in which every one need to gather flowers and plants to be the winner. Xu Yuanchong knows that “斗草” is a traditional game, so he adopted literal translation as “a game of grass we play”, which is direct and correct. While Kenneth Rexroth adopted amplification and translated it as”gathering wild flowers and herbs in the meadow” in order to create concrete scene for the target reader. Generally speaking, both the two versions realized the skopos of translating the cultural connotation of “斗草” by adopting different translation strategies.

(6)佳节又重阳(《醉花阴》)

The Double Ninth comes now again.

—translated by Xu Yuanchong

Again it is the Ninth of the Ninth Month.

—translated by Kenneth Rexroth

“重阳” is a traditional Chinese festival on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. People would always miss their families and relatives on this day every year. Here, when this festival is coming around, the poetess feel sad and lonely because of the separation from her husband, Zhao Mingcheng. In Xu Yuanchong’s version, he translated it literally as The Double Ninth and made a annotation to explain the cultural meaning of this festival to make target readers know the background information about this term. The unique feature of the ST is fully conveyed in the TT through foreignization. The skopos of Xu Yuanchong is to maintain the original feature of Chinese culture as much as possible, so he adopted foreignization to achieve this goal. In contrast, Kenneth Rexroth translated it into “the Ninth of the Ninth Month”. Although the time of the event is translated, but the connotation of this festival is lost. Sometimes literal translation for words with rich connotation can cause cultural loss. Here, Rexroth omitted the cultural meaning because he thinks it is not necessary to add the burden of understanding the text. In this way, the target reader can easily understand the TT within their own knowledge.

4.4 Translation of religious culture-loaded words

(7)仿佛梦魂归帝所 (《渔家傲》)

In leaf-like boat my soul to God’s abode would fly.

—translated by Xu Yuanchong

I am rapt away to the place of the Supreme/ And hear the words of Heaven.

—translated by Kenneth Rexroth

As we all known, Chinese culture is much influenced by Taoism whereas western culture is much affected by Christianity. Here, “帝所” refers to the place of the Jade Emperor. Because western people are not familiar with the myths of Taoist culture, here “God” is be the substitution of “帝” in Xu Yuanchong’s version by literal translation. In contrast, Kenneth Rexroth translated it as “the place of the Supreme”, which means the Sovereign. We can see the religious devotion of the ST is neglected. To conclude, Xu Yuanchong’s version is more faithful to the original text because he aims to introduce Chinese culture to foreigners. Kenneth Rexroth translated it without Taoist culture because he aims to remove cultural barriers and make target readers easier to understand the meaning of the text.

(8)造化可能偏有意，故叫明月玲珑地。(《渔家傲》)

You find a special favor in Creator’s eye,

The moon caresses you with pure beams from on high.

—translated by Xu Yuanchong

Making the bright moon shine splendid on your curving flesh.

—translated by Kenneth Rexroth

In Xu Yuanchong’s version, “造化” is translated directly into “Creator” but in Kenneth Rexroth’s version, this image is deleted. In China, “上天”（heaven）is the governor of the universe under the influence of Taoism and Buddhism. “造化” is a unique concept in Taoist culture. Xu Yuanchong aims to maintain the Taoist culture and introduce it to foreigners. However, in western countries, Christianity is the mainstream of religious belief. Therefore, Kenneth Rexroth neglected this image to make the TT more acceptable western people who believes in Christianity. In summary, Xu Yuanchong focused more on the culture of the ST whereas Kenneth Rexroth payed more attention on the acceptability of the target reader.

4.5 Translation of linguistic culture-loaded words

(9) 寻寻觅觅，冷冷清清， 凄凄惨惨戚戚。(《声声慢》)

I look for what I miss;

I know not what it is.

I feel so sad, so drear,

So lonely, without cheer.

—translated by Xu Yuanchong

Search. Search. Seek. Seek.

Cold. Cold. Clear. Clear.

Sorrow. Sorrow. Pain. Pain.

—translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Chung Ling

Tune: Slow, Slow, Song is recognized as the representative of reduplication. The use of seven sequential reduplicative words add the powerfulness of the miserable tone. we can find some similarities between these reduplicative words such as “清清”, “凄凄” and “戚戚” sound quite similar or even the same, really strengthen the melodious effect of the language. Xu Yuanchong adopted free translation in order to reproduce the beautiful artistic conception in the ST. The form of reduplication is neglected but the sad atmosphere that the reduplicarive words create is reproduced. Rexroth use the literal translation to imitate the original reduplicative words. The repetition of the same word reproduces the sound of reduplication in ST, and words with one syllable are also very similar to Chinese character. But the sense is not well conveyed. The target readers fail to experience the painful atmosphere and the great sadness of the poetess in the TT.

(10) 小风疏雨萧萧地 (《孤雁儿》)

A grizzling wind and drizzling rain

—translated by Xu Yuanchong

Small wind, fine rain, hsiao, Hsiao

—translated by Kenneth Rexroth

In the ST, “萧萧” is a reduplicative word in order to foil the depressed and sad atmosphere. It is difficult to reproduce this unique structure in the TT. We can see in Xu Yuanchong’s version, he omitted the original form and tried to reproduce the beautiful sound and sense. The rhymes of “grizzling” and “drizzling” are the same. This internal rhyme can make compensation for the loss of reduplication. And the strong sad mood is fully conveyed. Here, foreignization is employed. Kenneth Rexroth focused on the reproduction of the form, so he adopted transliteration to maintain the form of reduplicative word. Although the sound and form are beautiful, in this way, the sad cultural conception may lose at the same time.

Conclusion

In this paper, the present author studies the translation of cultural-loaded words in Li Qingzhao’s Ci-Poetry from the perspective of Scopos theory. By contrast analysis, we can find that Xu Yuanchong and Kenneth Rexroth adopted different translation strategies: the former adopted foreignization whereas the latter adopted domestication because of their different translation skopos. Xu Yuanchong devoted himself to introduce excellent Chinese culture to foreigners and Kenneth Rexroth aimed to make target reader better understand the TT. This study still has some shortcomings.

Although this paper can shed some light on the study of culture-loaded word, ti still has some limitations. If more samples of culture-loaded word are taken for the analysis, the study could be more comprehensive and systematic. Thus, the English translation of the culture-loaded words of her Ci poetry based on Skopos theory deserves further study. The author believes that wider cases will be involved in this study.

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A Study on Culture-loaded Words in Six Chapters of a Floating Life Translated by Lin Yutang from the Perspective of Domestication and Foreignization 蒋淇玮 Jiang Qiwei

Abstract

Six Chapters of a Floating Life is an autobiographical prose written by Shen Fu, who was a Chinese scholar in Qing dynasty, in 1808. It is popular among readers for its genuine words and sincerity between the lines. Among the current English versions of this book, Lin Yutang's Six Chapters of a Floating Life is written first and the closest with the original version in style, which enables lots of foreign readers to catch a glimpse of the life of an obscure Chinese scholar. Six Chapters of a Floating Life is written in classical Chinese and has a long history, which both make the translation more difficult, especially the translation of its culture-loaded words. Culture-loaded words refer to words, phrases and idioms that demonstrate specific things in a culture. As we all know, China has a centuries-old history and rich civilization, possessing plenty of unique cultural phenomena, not to mention numerous culture-loaded words. In Six Chapters of a Floating Life, there are many culture-loaded words that are worthy of study. By consulting relevant materials, I find that there are only a few works analyzing cultural-loaded words in Six Chapters of a Floating Life from the perspective of domestication and foreignization. This pair of translation terms was put forward by Lawrence Venuti, a famous American translation theorist, in The Translator's Invisibility in 1995. As a matter of fact, domestication and foreignization are a unity of opposites and complement each other. Neither absolute domestication nor foreignization exists. There are different degrees of domestication and foreignization in all translation activities and works. Therefore, it is reasonable, scientific and feasible to analyze Mr. Lin’s translation from this perspective, which can fill certain research vacancy and benefit future studies in this field. Thus, in this thesis, the author will subdivide domestication and foreignization into several detailed translation methods so as to analyze representative culture-loaded words in Six Chapters of a Floating Life. By doing this, this paper aims to prove the instructiveness of the translation strategies of domestication and foreignization, find out the reasons of the success of Mr. Lin’s translation, point out the positive role of this translation in the "going out" of Chinese culture, and provide reference for the translation of culture-loaded words.

Key Words

domestication; foreignization; Six Chapters of a Floating Life; Lin Yutang; culture-loaded words

摘要

《浮生六记》是清代文人沈复于1808年所著的自传体散文，以真言诉真情，为历代读者所推崇。目前流传较广的《浮生六记》英译本中，林语堂先生的Six Chapters of a Floating Life成文最早且与沈复原文风格最为接近，让不少外国读者得以一窥中国一无名文人的若梦浮生。 沈复此书以文言文著就，加上距今年代较为久远，译者的翻译之路可谓困难重重，这其中文化负载词的处理更是值得反复推敲。文化负载词是标志某种文化中特有事物的词、词组和习语。众所周知，中华民族的历史文明源远流长，独有的文化现象数不胜数，应运而生的文化负载词自然不在少数。《浮生六记》一书中就有相当数目的文化负载词具有研究价值。 通过查阅相关资料，本人发现从归化和异化角度来解读林译中文化负载词的研究还少之又少。归化和异化这对翻译术语是由美国著名翻译理论学家劳伦斯·韦努蒂（Lawrence Venuti）于1995年在《译者的隐身》中提出的。作为两种翻译策略，归化和异化是对立统一、相辅相成的，绝对的归化和绝对的异化都是不存在的。所有的翻译活动及作品都存在不同程度的归化和异化现象，故而，从这一角度来分析林译具有合理性、科学性和可行性，且能填补一定的研究空缺，为之后的相关研究提供可参考的思路与借鉴。 因此，本文作者将聚焦这一文学经典，将归化与异化这两种翻译策略细分为不同的翻译方法，对林译中有代表性的文化负载词进行分析解读，以小见大，从词见章，进而证明归化与异化的翻译策略的指导性，找出林译在国内外成功的原因，指出其在中国文化“走出去”中所起的积极作用，并为文化负载词的翻译难题提供解题思路及开口，引起大众对于文化翻译的重视与思考。

关键词

归化，异化，《浮生六记》，林语堂，文化负载词

Chapter One Introduction

With globalization surging ahead, cultural communication and exchange have become rising tides that no one can fight against. Chinese and English, as the language with the largest number of users and the language most widely used in this globe, are both crucial languages, which work as vital bridges in cultural world. However, as is known to all, China is a nation of age-old history and rich civilization. On her vast earth, there grows plenty of unique cultural phenomena. As a result, quite a number of culture-loaded words have been emerging. For culture-loaded words have their specific cultural connotations, it is hard to render them so that foreign readers could understand, which is a real and tough task for translators. Six Chapters of a Floating Life is an autobiographical prose written in classical Chinese by Shen Fu, who was a Chinese scholar in Qing dynasty, in 1808. It is popular among readers for its genuine words and sincerity between the lines. In this book, there are many culture-loaded words, which are worth studying. Among the current English versions of it, Lin Yutang's Six Chapters of a Floating Life is written first and the closest with the original version in style, which enables lots of foreign readers to take a look at the life of an obscure Chinese scholar. Thus, in this thesis, under the guidance of translation strategies, domestication and foreignization, the author will subdivide them into several detailed translation methods so as to analyze representative culture-loaded words in Six Chapters of a Floating Life. By doing this, this paper aims to prove the instructiveness of the translation strategies of domestication and foreignization, find out the reasons of the success of Mr. Lin’s translation, point out the positive role of this translation in the "going out" of Chinese culture, and provide reference for the translation of culture-loaded words.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 A Study on Six Chapters of a Floating Life For the sake of carrying on this study, we must have a basic understanding of both our original and translated text sources: Six Chapters of a Floating Life. Hence we will have a brief review of its original version and English version translated by Mr. Lin in the following paragraphs.

2.1.1 A Brief Review of Its Original Version Six Chapters of a Floating Life is an autobiographical prose written by Shen Fu, who was an unknown scholar in Qing dynasty, in the 13th year of Jiaqing (AD 1808). It includes six chapters, of which only four remain, recording Shen Fu’s wedded bliss, pleasures of life, ups and downs, travel experiences, experiences in Formosa and the way of life. The phrase in this book’s title "floating life" derives from a passage in Li Po's poem, “ Our floating life is like a dream; how often can one enjoy oneself ?” Shen Fu, whose courtesy name is Sanbai, and alternative name Meiyi, was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu province in China in the 28th year of Qianlong (AD 1763). He was a man of letters, who was once an assistant to ranking officials and a merchant. The remaining four chapters of Six Chapters of a Floating Life was accidentally found on the stall in Suzhou by a man called Yang Yinchuan. Yang passed it on to Wang Tao, his brother-in-law, who then published it with movable type in 1877. Subsequently, this book gradually established itself on the literary field. This book is a pure and fair record of Shen Fu's ordinary but difficult life, which is still full of unforgettable and beautiful moments. It is incredibly touching, for Mr. Shen wrote down his real experiences and sincere feelings in plain words naturally, without traces of sham. Nowadays, Six Chapters of a Floating Life has become a classic and owned a mass of readers. Many people even called it “little A Dream in Red Mansions” for its description of the conflicts in the feudal family and society, which highly affirms its literary value and achievements.

2.1.2 A Brief Review of Its English Version Translated by Lin Yutang In the spring and summer time of 1935, Lin Yutang successively translated Six Chapters of a Floating Life into English and serialized them in the English magazines T'ien Hsia Monthly and Hsi Feng published in Shanghai. For the sake of better work, Mr. Lin has modified his translation no less than ten times. Now, his translation version has been acknowledged as the most popular one for it is the closest to the original text in terms of writing style. Lin Yutang once highly praised Shen Fu’s wife Yün, “Yün, I think, is one of the loveliest women in Chinese literature.” Mr. Lin said he translated the work for two reasons, one is to let the world know Yün by her name, and the other is that he has found lots of things in the simple life of this couple, the pursuit of beauty, the experience of ups and downs, and unswerving love for carefreeness. In February of 1999, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press reprinted Six Chapters of a Floating Life with Mr. Lin’s translation in the form of picture book. Its introductory notes claim that the reprinting is first due to Mr. Lin’s translation work, which has contributed a lot in the promotion of Chinese culture, secondly Mr. Lin’s superb artistic attainments and extraordinary cultural accomplishments, and lastly his beautiful and skilled use of English language. It demonstrates that Mr. Lin's translation has a far-reaching influence.

2.2 An Introduction of Culture-loaded Words Here we will focus on another important item in this study: culture-loaded words. This introduction covers three aspects, including definition, categorization and previous studies on them in Six Chapters of a Floating Life, which enable us to distinguish, select and analyse culture-loaded words in future steps.

2.2.1 Definition of Culture-loaded Words There are many definitions for culture-loaded words, and I have presented three different versions below. First, Mona Baker claims that "the source-language word may express a concept which is totally unknown in the target culture. The concept in question may be abstract or concrete; it may relate to a religious belief, a social custom, or a type of food. Such concepts are often referred to as `culture-specific' " (2000:21). This definition mentions three fields, namely religion, custom and food, which are now recognized to be among the main sources of culture-loaded words. Second, it means that the cultural information words carry in the source language finds no equivalent in the target language (包慧南，2001：10). In this version, the focus is “no equivalent”, which reveals why it is significant to study the translation of culture-loaded words. For in numerous cases, there is no equivalent in the target language. Third, J.F. Aixelá, a Spanish translator and translation theorist, defines them as "culture-specific items" and states in his book Culture-specific Item in Translation that "Some items appeared in the source text do not have equivalent items in the target readers' cultural system or these items have different textual status with those in the target readers' cultural system, thus leading to translation difficulty while transferring the function and meaning of the source text to the target text" (张南峰，2004：19). From this definition, we are able to get a new perspective. Besides “no equivalent”, it makes a point that culture-loaded words can exist in the target cultural system but with different function and meaning. To sum up, as barriers to translation, culture-loaded words have no equivalent in other cultural systems and are marks and mirrors of a nation’s distinct environment, which are often seen in fields like religion, custom, food etc.

2.2.2 Categorization of Culture-loaded Words Eugene Nida considers that "if translators want to do a good job in cross-cultural translation, there are five types of cultural factors: 1) ecological culture; 2) material culture; 3) social culture; 4) religious culture; and 5) linguistic culture"(胡壮麟、姜望琪，2002). In line with Nida's categorization of cultural factors, culture-loaded words can also be classified into five types accordingly, namely ecological culture-loaded words, religious culture-loaded words, material culture-loaded words, social culture-loaded words and linguistic culture-loaded words. This thesis will analyze Lin Yutang’s translation of culture-loaded words in Six Chapters of a Floating Life on the basis of Nida's categorization.

2.2.3 Previous Studies on Translation of Culture-loaded Words in Six Chapters of a Floating Life Among those studies of the English versions of Shen Fu’s Six Chapters of a Floating Life, the studies of Mr. Lin’s account for a large proportion of it. In Quan Shulian’s article “Translator’s Cultural Orientation: Comparative Study of Translation of Culture-loaded Words in Six Chapters of a Floating Life”, she compares the translation of culture-loaded words done by Mr. Lin and Shirley Black and then claims that Shirley Black tends to use domestication while Mr. Lin applies foreignization more frequently. With a different focus, Li Yi, who has studied the culture-loaded words in Six Chapters of a Floating Life translated by Lin Yutang, analyzes the translation of culture-loaded words in three aspects: wording, Chinese idioms and the looks of women, and concludes that it is the purpose of translation determines which translation strategies to use and domestication and foreignization are a unity of opposites which should not be discussed apart.

Chapter Three An Analysis of Translation Strategies Based on Six Chapters of a Floating Life

3.1 Translation Strategy of Domestication Domestication, as opposed to foreignization, refers to a translation strategy, which aims to translate the source text into target language in a transparent, fluent and natural style so as to minimize the strangeness for target readers. As free translation is the most widely used translation method pertaining to domestication, we will discuss it and its two branches paraphrase and idiomatic translation.

3.1.1 Free Translation Free translation refers to a translation method that reproduces the transferred meaning of the source text, which can be further divided into paraphrase and idiomatic translation.

3.1.1.1 Paraphrase When applying paraphrase, the translator translates the source text explanatorily, without application of collocations and idioms in the target language as replacement of those parts in the source text.

1a. 合卺后，并肩夜膳，……（沈复，2018：7） 1b. After the drinking of the customary twin cups between bride and groom, we sat down together at dinner… (Lin Yutang, 2019: 35)

The Chinese phrase “合卺” refers to a characteristic part of ancient Chinese wedding ceremonies that the newlyweds drink cross-cupped wine in their wedding room. Foreign readers would have difficulty comprehending this phrase as there is no such a rite in their countries. Thus, Lin Yutang applies the translation method of paraphrase, explaining exactly what the custom is, which enables foreign readers to understand this special activity.

3.1.1.2 Idiomatic Translation Idiomatic translation is an explanatory method of translation as well, with application of collocations and idioms in the target language as replacement of the parts in the source text.

2a. 井井然未尝稍失。（沈复，2018：9） 2b. Whatever she did was done well, and it was difficult to find fault with her. (Lin Yutang, 2019: 40-41)

“未尝稍失”means that someone handles things incredibly well, without anything wrong. And we can translate this Chinese phrase just in such an explanatory way, for it is clear and correct in meaning. But it is comparatively lengthy. That’s why here Mr. Lin adopts the English phrase “find fault with”, which is quite familiar to English users. For it conveys the meaning of the source text precisely and concisely, and improves the smoothness of foreign readers’ reading activity.

3.2 Translation Strategy of Foreignization Compared to domestication, foreignization refers to a translation strategy that retains the original expressions and differences between source and target languages to a larger extent. This translation strategy can offer foreign readers more exotic information if they are willing to explore, but the reading process is less natural and efficient. And foreignization consists of three translation methods, namely transliteration, word-for-word translation and literal translation, which will be presented below.

3.2.1 Transliteration Transliteration refers to the rendering of alphabets, words or phrases in one language with symbols of similar or even the same pronunciations in another language.

3a. 服余衣，长一寸又半；于腰间折而缝之，外加马褂。（沈复，2018：31） 3b. As my gown was found to be an inch and a half too long, she tucked it round the waist and put on a makua on top. (Lin Yutang, 2019: 108)

The Chinese phrase “马褂” refers to the mandarin jacket worn over a gown, which is a kind of special costume of Chinese characteristics. It is popular in Qing dynasty and the Republic of China. Originally, it’s worn by the Chinese Manchu people on horseback. “马” means “horse” in English. “褂” means a short gown. And that is the reason why this costume is called “马褂”in Chinese. Though foreign readers barely know this kind of clothes and its origin, Mr. Lin translates it as “makua” tersely according to its Chinese pronunciation, which offers foreign readers an opportunity to get a clue of the new item “makua” and shows his confidence of Chinese history and culture.

3.2.2 Word-for-word Translation Word-for-word translation is the rendering of text in which a word is used to replace another in the source text without considering the differences between the two languages in morphology, syntax and semantics, so as to translate a word in accordance with the paraphrasing method.

4a. 一场，主考得香钱百文。（沈复，2018：57） 4b. The official examiner would get one hundred cash “incense money”. (Lin Yutang, 2019: 253)

“Incense” translated into Chinese is “香”, while the English equivalent of “钱” is “money”. From this we can find that “incense money” is a word-for-word correspondence with “香钱”. There are much fewer people in English-speaking countries who are Buddhists, compared with China. So the concept of “incense money” may be strange to them. Here, Mr. Lin translates this phrase literally without transforming or considering morphological differences in two languages, which shows a brand-new concept to plentiful foreign readers. And it might arouse their interest to figure out what this phrase implies and what’s the culture connotation behind it.

3.2.3 Literal Translation Literal translation, or directed translation, is the rendering of text in which a word is used to replace another word in the original text correspondingly, with consideration of the differences between the two languages in morphology, syntax and semantics, so as to enable the translation to conform to the lexical and syntactic norms of the target language.

5a. 急人之难，成人之事，嫁人之女，抚人之儿，指不胜屈，挥金如土，多为他人。（沈复，2018：63） 5b. He used to help people in trouble, bring up other people's sons and marry off other people's daughters in innumerable instances, spending money like dirt, all for the sake of other people. (Lin Yutang, 2019: 299)

“挥金如土” in Chinese means to throw one’s money about. There is a set expression in English both in meaning and construction, which is “spending money like water”. But instead of the image “water”, which is more common and well-accepted among English people, Mr. Lin keeps the original image “dirt” in his translation. That’s because the image “dirt” is more acknowledged by Chinese people, who have been rooted in agriculture civilization and dealt with dirt all the time. Hence, the literal translation of “dirt” into English is able to let readers of different culture background grasp more of the source text and aware of the culture differences.

3.3 A Brief Conclusion on the Translation Strategies In this Chapter, we have mainly discussed five translation methods based on Six Chapters of a Floating Life. Among them, two belong to the translation strategy of domestication while three the translation strategy of foreignization. The former instances from the book have proved that the application of the translation methods under domestication enables foreign readers to comprehend and accept literary works in a closer and more natural way, while the translation methods under foreignization provides them with a choice to feel the cultural differences and find out more valuable information. There is no absolute domestication or foreignization and no perfect choice of translation strategies. It is the purposes of translation that determine which translation strategy or methods to use. As to Mr. Lin, he has combined the usage of both the two superior strategies and their translation methods in his translation of Six Chapters of a Floating Life.

Chapter Four An Analysis of the Translation of Culture-loaded Words in Six Chapters of a Floating Life

4.1 Domestication Applied in Culture-loaded Words In this part, we will center upon some culture-loaded words in Six Chapters of a Floating Life that are translated by Mr. Lin with the adoption of domestication.

4.1.1 Free Translation of Culture-loaded Words As we have mentioned before, free translation is the most commonly used translation method pertaining to domestication and it includes paraphrase and idiomatic translation. Therefore, we will discuss them with examples of culture-loaded words in the book.

4.1.1.1 Paraphrase of Culture-loaded Words The following two examples are able to demonstrate the brilliant use of paraphrase by Mr. Lin in his translation of culture-loaded words. 6a. 自此耳鬓相磨，亲同形影。（沈复，2018：9） 6b. And so every day we rubbed shoulders together and clung to each other like an object and its shadow… (Lin Yutang, 2019: 42)

The Chinese phrase “耳鬓相磨” is culture-loaded, which just derives from this book of Shen Fu. It literally means the rubbing of people’s ears and sideburns, whose extended meaning refers to the close relationship among people. Here Mr. Lin applies the new image of shoulders instead of the original images of ears and sideburns, for it would be hard for foreign audience to grasp the connection between ears and sideburns and the intimacy within them. Meanwhile, rubbing shoulders can accurately express the meaning of closeness in English. So he uses the phrase “rubbed shoulders” to convey the original meaning in an explanatory way.

7a. 粉颈 （沈复，2018：8） 7b. Beautiful white neck (Lin Yutang, 2019: 38)

In China, scholars conventionally adopt the word “粉”, which is “pink” in English, to modify one’s face, neck, etc. to show that one’s skin is white touched with red. However, if translating the Chinese term “粉颈” literally, we will get the phrase “pink neck”. There is no doubt that it will be odd for foreign audience. Therefore, Mr. Lin uses “beautiful white” rather than “pink” to modify “neck”, which expresses the meaning of “粉” briefly and precisely without causing troubles to readers and makes their reading activities more natural and pleasant.

4.1.1.2 Idiomatic Translation of Culture-loaded Words The following example is able to demonstrate the fine use of idiomatic translation by Mr. Lin in his translation of culture-loaded words.

8a. 大醉而卧（沈复，2018：7） 8b. I fell asleep drunk like a fish. (Lin Yutang, 2019: 37)

This four-character Chinese phrase means one is lying in a state of terrible drunkenness. In the processing of this phrase, Mr. Lin uses a set English phrase “drunk like a fish”, which describes that one is terribly drunk. The adoption of this ready-made phrase in translation does convey the meaning of the source text correctly and vividly, which makes it easy for foreign readers to catch on and picture the scene. From this we can see that wise use of idiomatic translation may yield twice the result with half the effort.

4.2 Foreignization Applied in Culture-loaded Words In this part, we will center on some culture-loaded words in Six Chapters of a Floating Life that are translated by Mr. Lin with the adoption of foreignization.

4.2.1 Transliteration of Culture-loaded Words The following two examples are able to show the use of transliteration by Mr. Lin in his translation of culture-loaded words.

9a. 故上下呼芸为“三娘”。后忽呼为“三太太”……（沈复，2018：63） 9b. hence they used to call Yün “san niang” at home, but this was later suddenly changed into “san t'ai t'ai”. (Lin Yutang, 2019: 301)

“San” refers to “number three” in Chinese. “Niang” generally means a young married woman in a big household, while “t’ai t’ai” suggests the mistress of an independent home. “Niang” and “t’ai t’ai” are two of those unique terms of addressing people in ancient Chinese society, so there are no equivalents in English. That’s why Mr. Lin chooses to introduce their Chinese sounds to foreign audience, which leaves them a hint to learn two interesting addresses with era characteristics and know the distinct Chinese system of addressing. 10a. 余则从之学画，写草篆，镌图章…… （沈复，2018：56） 10b. They would then either write “grass-script”, or “chüan-script” or carve seals… (Lin Yutang, 2019: 247)

“篆书” refers to a style in Chinese calligraphy, often used on seals. If we translate the Chinese character “篆” literally into English it would be “seal”. However, Mr. Lin abandons the easy translation of “seal- script” and renders this calligraphy style as “chüan-script” according to its Chinese pronunciation, which exhibits an individual kind of Chinese writing style to foreign readers. There will be problems that most people who know little about China will feel difficult to understand this ancient “script”. And if they desire to figure it out, they need to do extra work beyond reading this book. Nevertheless, in this way, they have chances to know much more about China, which is an efficient way of spreading Chinese culture and driving cross-cultural communication.

4.2.2 Word-for-word Translation of Culture-loaded Words The following example is able to show the masterly use of word-for-word translation by Mr. Lin in his translation of culture-loaded words.

11a. 芸笑曰：“白字有缘，将来恐白字连篇耳。”（沈复，2018： 13） 11b. “It is all right,” Yün smiled and replied. “to have one's life bound up with the Po's, only I am afraid I shall be writing Po characters all my life.” (Lin Yutang, 2019: 54-55)

The so-called Po characters are words written wrong. This kind of words indeed exists in Chinese writing system, but they are used in a wrong way by people for they are of similar pronunciations and forms while in different meanings. In translation of this sentence, Mr. Lin renders “白字”, which means misspelt words, as “Po characters” word for word. “Po” is close to the pronunciation of Chinese character “白”, while “character” literally means “字” in Chinese. Mr. Lin translates the culture-loaded phrase like this to demonstrate a new term to foreign readers, instead of “misspelt word” which is easy to grasp but lack of Chinese charm. In this way, foreign readers can be more conscious of the original cultural genes lie behind those English words.

4.2.3 Literal Translation of Culture-loaded Words The last two examples will show the tactful use of literal translation by Mr. Lin in his translation of culture-loaded words.

12a. 但李诗宛如姑射仙子，有一种落花流水之趣，令人可爱。 （沈复，2018：12） 12b. but Li Po’s poems have the wayward charm of nymph. His lines come naturally like dropping petals and flowing waters, and are so much lovelier for their spontaneity. (Lin Yutang, 2019: 53)

In Chinese, “落花流水” is an idiom, which usually refers to the beauty of the scenes is waning in the late spring or one is defeated utterly. But this phrase is used here to compliment Li Po’s poems’ fluency and naturalness. Even though this expression is full of Chinese features, it is not too hard for foreign readers to get its implication from the images of “dropping petals” and “flowing waters”. For we have a common sense about these two natural scenery that they are both in the state of harmony and fluency. So Mr. Lin’s adoption of the method of literal translation is quite appropriate here and leaves some space for readers to imagine and taste by themselves.

13a. 芸曰：“世传月下老人专司人间婚姻事……” （沈复，2018：27） 13b. “It is said that the Old Man under the Moon is in charge of matrimony,” said Yün. (Lin Yutang, 2019: 92)

“月下老人” is the god of marriage who is in charge of human love relationships in Chinese mythology. This image is peculiar to China, so it stands to reason that there is no equivalent expression in other countries. When rendering this culture-loaded phrase, Mr. Lin chooses the method of literal translation with words of capitalized initial letters, which enables readers to feel that it is obviously a new culture symbol for them and the Old Man may be a Chinese god. Then it is up to the readers themselves if they want to search for some more information about this “Old Man under the Moon” or not. In this way, the translation becomes briefer and it rests with the readers concerning how much information they will get beyond the lines.

Chapter Five Conclusion

Concerning the current fact that different cultural systems around the world are becoming increasingly connected, translation activities have been literally taking place at every moment. However, the cultural differences in different counties have made it an arduous task. In view of the tremendous differences between China and English-speaking countries, the translation works are no easy tasks as well. As symbols which carry lots of cultural information, culture-loaded words are obstacles in translation, for they have no equivalents in other languages. So when translating these words, translators need to be alert and adopt the most proper translation strategies and methods so as to achieve the translation purposes to the deepest extent. In this thesis, guided by domestication and foreignization, the author has discussed several culture-loaded words in Six Chapters of a Floating Life, which translated by Lin Yutang. Different from other theses focusing on this issue, the author probes it in five detailed translation methods under the two translation strategies we have mentioned before. Through the analysis of former examples, we can come to the point that domestication and foreignization are the unity of opposites. There is no standard answer that which translation strategy should be used in which circumstances. It is the purposes of translation that determine our choice. In the translation of Six Chapters of a Floating Life, Lin Yutang has proved this to us by using different translation methods in accordance with his purposes, which contributes to his translation success both at home and abroad and the cultural exchanges between China and other countries. In total, this thesis has basically fulfilled its tasks to prove the instructiveness of the translation strategies of domestication and foreignization, and find out the reasons why Lin Yutang’s translation version turns out to be a huge success and receives warm responses. At the same time, it points out that this translation has played an active role when Chinese culture steps out to the global stage, and provides reference for the translation of culture-loaded words.

Bibliography

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How to keep "Chineseness " in Idiom Translation from Chinese to English 瞿淼 Qu Miao

摘要：俗语是流传在人民群众口头上的，结构相对稳定的通俗语句，一般包括谚语、歇后语、惯用语和俗成语。汉语俗语承载着中国语言文化特色，蕴含着丰富的文化信息。在汉英俗语翻译中，因为汉语和英语属于不同的语言系统，并且文化差异较大，所以常常出现译文丢失了中国特色的情况。本文从归化和异化的角度，对比了分别使用归化和异化翻译方法的译文的效果，讨论汉英俗语翻译保持中国特色的方法，得出结论，在汉语俗语英译过程中应该采取异化为主，归化为辅，并结合注释的方法，以此来最大限度地保持俗语的中国特色。 Abstract

Translation of English Proverbs from the Perspective of Culture 韩海洋 202020080602 Han Haiyang

Abstract

under the context of close communication between eastern and western countries, cultural influence now is increasingly enjoying more importance than before in language exchanging. As for translation of English proverbs, proper translation strategies should be considered in order to better understand their meaning and characters. By looking up thesis and documents, some translation strategies need to be concluded. In terms of cultural influence and social communication, foreignization and domestication are chosen in which the former is used more frequently that the latter. It arrives the conclusion that foreignization applied for translation of English proverbs is on the increase.

Key Words

proverbs; culture; translation strategies

摘要

由于文化因素在不同语言之间的交流具有一定的影响，特别在中西方交往日益密切的背景下。为了更好的翻译英语谚语，使其达到应有预期效果，适当的翻译策略可以在翻译过程中更好地了解谚语的含义与特色。通过查阅资料和文献，总结出合适的翻译方法。根据现在的社会背景和文化影响，对于归化和异化两种方法，异化的选择得到了更多的倾向。在翻译的过程中，将文化因素考虑进去对于语言翻译上面，异化的趋势将会逐渐增大。

关键词

谚语; 文化; 翻译方法 

1. Introduction

With the advent of 21th century, society has been changed in a wide scope, and shed light on the unparalleled interaction of culture and economy as most exemplified phenomenon happening everywhere. Translation is thereby a way to transfer from one culture to another, in which the effect of cultural background is behind language the essence of best fruit of translation. The history of translation has been lasted for a long time, for example when it comes to English proverbs, which can be traced to centuries ago, like Bible and works of Shakespeare. It is not rare to see that each country has its own unique culture, and under the cover abundant resources mirroring a country can be exploited. English proverbs as a product of culture the bridge for cultural exchange is been studied since centuries ago. The strategies of proverbs translation also have been experimentally discussed from time to time as the rapid development of culture and economy. Translation plays a key role in promoting a country’s own culture, because that is the way of importing and exporting knowledge of culture to another country. Proverbs is the product of culture that cannot be understood directly without any effort to digest it. So translation is needed, which could impose exotic flavors to new conception or understanding, but the premise is that translation is properly chosen in regard to nowadays strongly cultural promotion awareness.

Usually proverbs are concise, concrete and pithy words which are rhythmed and organized for the sake of being simple to remember and spread to people. Proverbs are summarized by certain people from all walks of life in a specialized area, including eating habits, farming, belief, customs and so many. Proverbs composed of words the exact symbol of language, are named as the crystal of culture in a easily understandable way. Culture awareness is highly appreciated whatever it is developed country or developing country. For the fulfillment of translation of English proverbs, therefore this thesis aims to translate English proverbs with appropriate translation strategies-mainly foreignization and domestication from the perspective culture.

2. Chapter 1 General Introduction to English proverbs

1.1 Definition of Proverbs

As far as history is concerned, proverbs can be dated back to the times that language is produced. According to Dictionary of Proverbs, proverbs are “a succinct and memorable statement that contains advice, a warning or a prediction, or an analytical observation”. Maybe the first definition is given by Socrates that a proverb is noted as brevity, philosophical tone, and common usage. In the 15th century, Michael Apostolius of Byzantium wrote, “A proverb is a statement which conceals the clear in the unclear, or which through concrete images indicates intellectual concepts, or which makes clear the truth in furtive fashion”(Honeck, 1997: 12). Champion (1966:xi) has claimed his idea “a proverb in my opinion is a racial aphorism which has been, or still is, in common use, conveying advice or counsel, invariably camouflaged figuratively, disguised in metaphor or allegory.”

According to Mieder (1993), “A proverb is a short generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed and memorable form and which is handed down from generation to generation”. Although definition is definitely different from one to another, one thing is for sure is that proverbs have been proved to exist for a long time. From all the above have been talked, proverbs can be boiled down to a simple, culture-loaded, and wide-circled saying enjoying great popularity throughout the whole country. Considering it that a majority of elements are included in proverbs, especially when it comes to perspective of culture, some feasible measures should be properly taken to handle it.

1.1.1 Origin of Proverbs from Abroad Proverbs are not come out from nowhere, and the amount and meaning of them do not stay the same eternally. As a rule, comparison between at home and abroad is always been found. From abroad, English proverbs could be seen in Bible, and works from Shakespeare and other fables. Part of old proverbs are stemmed from Bible, which largely related to God and so many fairy tales, or in other word like “God” or any related implication are sometimes recorded in proverbs. Like the famous one said: “man proposes, God disposes”, it shows that in western country people faithfully believe in God who is enshrined in most western religions, especially Christianity. .

Except from Bible, in the times of Renaissance Shakespeare’s works can be found in which some proverbs are known from that time. For example, in Romeo and Juliet there is one sentence “a rose by any other means would smell as sweet”. It means that irrespective of how things’ names are changed, the essence embedded in them would still intact. Shakespeare is as one of the most brilliant play writers just on the behalf of renaissance period. There are still amounts of proverbs created by other scholars like Francis Bacon, John Milton and so on.

1.1.2 Origin of Proverbs at home

In china, proverbs can be traced to Spring and Autumn periods. At that time, people mostly work at farm, so there are a lot of proverbs related to farming or country life. with Zuo’s Commentary( 左 传 ) deserves the first.(ibid,2003:31) In it, the Chinese proverb “山有木，工则度之；宾有礼，主则择之”has its track, and most of the proverbs mentioned in Zuo’s Commentary are from Zhou Dynasty as “Zhou proverbs”(周谚). Besides, terms like “Xia proverbs(夏谚)” can also be found in Mencius(孟子). Like the proverb “吾王不游，吾何以休？吾王不豫，吾何以助？一游一豫，为诸侯度”from Mencius, though have not been handed down, it is regarded as the earliest proverb that have been recorded (ibid,2003). Xia is an extremely ancient dynasty in Chinese history, as far as over 4,000years from today. So maybe proverbs are not as popular as today, they are definitely has records and can shed light on Chinese history.

Proverbs in China are said to date back to as early as before the words came into being. People at that time did not pass down their knowledge and experience by writing, while they made it by speaking and saying in a simple and memorable way. With time moving forward, proverbs are gradually been regarded as important as written words which play a great role in future generation in dealing with culture and heritage. No matter what kind of proverbs are produced, from the historical evidence it can be observed that proverbs can across ocean and land, moving to another country, another culture domain.

1.2 Characteristics of Proverbs

Proverbs are memorable, vivid words which are succinct and simple in form summarized by people from all walks of life. Both Chinese and English are bountiful in considering the thousands of proverbs have been recorded and there are still more proverbs to be created as time goes on. For the record, proverbs are not spoken at random and created at one’s free will. Some rules can be depended on, such as the lifestyle, living environment, education, social value, and so on. Take environment for example, the British lived near to ocean or sea, and therefore it is common to see proverbs related to sea spoken by English people “In a clam sea, every man is a pilot.”

1.2.1 Cultural Characteristics of Proverbs

Broadly speaking, culture contains all the aspects of the society and gives its people ability viewing the world. Meanwhile, culture also can be regarded as a deciding element on distinguishing the difference from each country. It is no exaggeration to say that a country’s most standing heritage is its culture, which keeps changeable in line with the history. Although nowadays similarities of culture are seen more easily than ever before, the reason is under the influence of globalization-culture import and export take place here and there. The logic is culture formed from all walks of life, which means language is included, and proverbs are product of language. Therefore, proverbs carry characteristics of culture whatever the country is and how singular its culture is. Social customs is one of the big parts in a cultural society, there are some symbols or people are widely used in proverbs. Jack and Jill usually refer to man and woman in general such as: “every Jack has his Jill”. The counterpart in china is also easy to find. To name a few, there are more could be found in each cultural community. The next indispensable one is religion. It is well acknowledged that western countries like America and the UK, are religious countries, in which the words like: “God, devil, and church” are seen here and there. Like it has been said before, language is the product of culture, which contains every aspect of people’s life from individuality to the whole society. What is more, value concept is also included since it reflects how a country embodies its culture to the outside world. Giving respect for the aged in china is a necessary and ethic social value passed on and on for thousands of years. In Chinese, there is proverb saying that: “不听老人言，吃亏在眼前”. It means youth should listen to what the old men told you, or you will pay the price of what you have done. Instead, traditional values favor in masculinity, people think that men are superior to women and they have direct control over them. Ego and individuality in America is felt deeply, because they think that they are going to be successful by themselves from any given chance. They seldom make big achievement by working in group rather than enjoying doing it by their own hands. Proverbs like “near is my shirt, but near is my skin” is emphasizing that someone himself is more important than others.

1.2.2 Rhetorical Characteristics of Proverbs

As proverbs express concrete meaning by only a few words, sometimes it has to apply some kind of rhetorical devices for perfectly presenting the delicacy of proverbs. Some meaningful proverbs are not understood directly by adding each word all together, however, it only can be realized by using proper rhetorical methods to give their deep meaning, in another word, connotative meaning.

Simile is often seen in proverbs, and it usually compares one thing to another thing, in order to showing its vivid or obscure picture to receptor who may not understand directly from plain words. In sentences with simile, “like” and “as” are widely used for example, “March come in like a lion and goes out like a lamb”, and “time tries friend, as fire tries gold”. The former means that the changes of March is different from how it is coming and ending, and the latter means that friend like gold needs to be tested then you would find who is your real friend. Both of them impressively express the core meaning from unfamiliar thing or abstract thing to specific and easily understandable thing. Metaphor is seemingly like simile, but it is more implicitly explaining meaning than simile. Like “brevity is the soul of wit” and “an empty bag cannot stand upright”. The former means brevity is so important to wit like the soul of a person, the latter one translated in Chinese is “人是铁，饭是钢，一顿不吃饿的慌。” Hyperbole is a rhetoric that uses overstatement or obvious exaggeration to emphasize something, such as “Our life is but a span” and “An unfortunate man would drown in teacup”. The former means life lasts in a few times as short as span, which is obviously overstated. The latter means if a person is feeling unlucky at that day, whatever you do will bring bad lucky. Personification is the ability to endow common lifeless things with features of human-being. For instance, “Money is a good servant but a bad master”, and “fortunate knocks once at least at every man’s gate”. The former means money should be rationally handled or it may be a burden for you. The latter means everyone has a chance to be fortunate at least once.

From all above have been discussed, they are just the most common figurative devices formed into proverbs. In terms of the function of rhetorical, proverbs can come into being in a simple, memorable form. It can be inferred that proverbs in a much degree use rhetorical to express refined and concrete meaning. Meanwhile it reflects the problem that when doing translation of proverbs, focus are more than just words themselves needed to be considered, as well as culture, form and connotative meaning.

1.3 Differences Between Proverbs and Maxims, Sayings, Idioms

It seems that proverbs are looked the same as maxims, sayings, and idioms one way or another, but in fact there still exists some differences between them. For one thing, the existence of proverbs is across the whole world, therefore, no one can precisely calculate how many of them are recorded, and how many of them are still unknown to us. In terms of the number of proverbs is uncertain, so making a convincing definition is unrealistic, at least not perfect. If referring to it could be found that the definition in the dictionary is also easy to distinguish from each other.

Some researchers disagree with each other on the definitions of these similar terms. Fergusson (1983) states some proverbs are simple folk sayings. Burton Stevenson (1987)’s idea about proverb is that― “A maxim is the sententious expression of some general truth or rule and it becomes a proverb when it gets its wings by winning popular acceptance.” Some scholars believe that sayings are one stream in the vast ocean of proverbs while others argue that proverbs should be included in the realm of sayings. In one source defining idioms and proverbs, NTC’s American Idioms Dictionary (1987) mention that ― “the idiom ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’ is a proverb meaning that something you already have is better than something you might get.” As for classifying maxims and proverbs, Cordry (1997) suggests that “one defines a maxim as a rule of conduct and a proverb as a comment or observation with regard to the universal experience of life, the distinction is not always clear.” And as given in Concise Oxford English-Chinese Dictionary (2003), saying is defined as “a maxim, proverb, adage, etc.” Even so, there must be some obvious features we could rely on to categorize them in general. It could be concluded that maxim and saying are mostly the expression of principle or behavior of man or the rules that summarized by famous writer or philosopher. Thus maxim and saying are seldom heard or seen except reading in the books and hearing from author himself. As a number of them are in a serious or form expression, there they are not as popular as proverbs which are created from daily experience by common people. In regard to idiom, its meaning is not the each word put together, but by understanding it form local people who made them and made it spread in his surrounding places. Idioms sometimes are not complete sentences but simple phrases. While, proverbs enjoy great popularity and are universally spread because of their concrete, succinct and vivid description.

In conclusion, proverbs are prevalent in the world enjoying widespread social value and abundant sentence structures, but for sayings and maxims they are carrying the color of literature. Idioms have local color that is only understood within the same or similar speech community. With such understanding, it lays the foundation for researcher to better study and distinguish the distinctions form others.

2. Chapter 2 Relation Between Culture and Proverbs Translation

2.1 Definition of Culture

As many scholars have been studied the definition culture, there have been existed sorts of definitions, in which they do not have big difference in one way or another. Culture is a general word that could take language, customs, religion, and others into account. One of the oldest and most quoted definitions of culture, which is frequently mentioned regardless of so many entries of definitions, was formulated by the 19th-century English anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor in the first paragraph of his Primitive Culture (1871) as “Culture… is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. …” (Katan,2004:16). While Nida, a famous linguistic and translation theorist, gives his definition of culture as “the totality of beliefs and practices of a society” in the book Language and Culture (2001:139) and as “the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its means of expression” by New mark given in his book of A Textbook of Translation (2001:94).

From the mentioned above, culture includes every aspect of human life such as housing, transporting, communicating with people, recording of history and so on. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that proverb, or even language is a part of culture. Some scholar even put that language is the medium of culture, without language there may be no existence of culture. So the importance of culture cannot be ignored in order to better understand the deep meaning when studying proverb, a culture-loaded word, and more attention should be given to perspective of culture.

2.2 Language and Proverb

It is no exaggeration to say that language is the product of culture since culture is culturally transmitted from the view of linguistics. Therefore, proverbs are composed of a set of words, which are selected from a particular language community. Take English and Chinese for example, they both represent their special culture and unique characteristics respectively. More importantly, proverbs are the crystal of language, which can be used as a convenient tool to understand different cultures for language is the bridge leading to culture.

2.3 Value and proverbs

Value is associated with sorts of people’s live and is defined by these people living in a specific area. Value of appreciation on people is an obvious example that eastern and western countries have extreme angles on how to appraise a person. Tanned skin and jeans clothes are symbols as to select people whom they like more, but for eastern, white skin and Qipao maybe are thresholds for people to judge a person whether he or she is more stylish. Value of eating is still a big mark to differentiate race or natality. Cooked meal in china and salad in the west make the difference that eating habit is so little sameness on each other. There are still more, living environment and national policy if is related to country. All of them shape all kinds of values which are on behave of its countries or people. Like east or west, home is the best means “金窝，银窝，不如自己的狗窝.” Proverbs are not just created form nowhere but they are existed for ages and still available only if they are still reflecting meaningful viewpoints.

Language is a part of culture and also at the same time a reflection of culture. Taking Chinese and English for example, they belong to different language families, therefore there exist some distinctions between them. Chinese people usually don’t say daring or family name directly, which is so different from western people who call their parents’ name and say sweet words without any concerning of awkwardness or shyness. It works to proverbs, and that is the social custom defining a society what is their core valve. As far as we know, social value between western country and eastern country are of great differences. In western country, self-awareness and individuality are mostly emphasized, but for eastern, more attention is given to collective wisdom and working in groups. Like Chinese proverbs “ 三个臭皮匠，顶个诸葛亮。”and in English proverbs such as “ God helps those who help themselves.” From above being said that it has a lot benefits to study proverbs to better understand culture and language.

2.4 Cultural Similarity on Chinese and English Proverbs

Without any effort it can tell that Chinese and English are defined by different language families. Even so, Chinese and English proverbs shared some similarities in various ways, which are performed in different form and speech of proverbs. Because there exist universal truths and life styles, they are more or less understood by people from society to society. Like the truth of the universe in the definition of right and wrong and subjects including philosophy, math, chemistry, they are all developed separately in different areas but shared and summarized by all members form all the world. In this point, proverbs play the role in spreading some common knowledge and experience to the outside world, though forms are created by different society, they are carrying the same meaning or implying one way or another. Examples like “a snow year, a rich year(瑞雪兆丰年), strike while the iron is hot, and a neighbor is better than a distant cousin.” All of them are proved to share universal life experience and truth in the everyday life. Because people live under the same sky, sun, star, they go on making their living by hard working.

It is no exaggeration to say that cultural exchanges are rapidly happening all over the word, and foreign culture may be assimilated by domestic culture or rejected by its opposite expression of culture. In this sense, we have same expressions in different ways of forms, like “情人眼里出西施” (Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder). They are describing the same thing but with different cultural background, therefore they sometimes have similarities in one way or another.

2.5 Cultural Difference in Chinese and English Proverbs

Without a doubt that cultural similarities surely make translation easier in understanding foreign proverbs, but they are not silver bullets to taking all the proverbs into consideration. When it comes to separate boundaries which cut the Earth into serval parts, under this context, local culture will be formed and promoted in its own birth place. One of the most common features of culture is religion in western and eastern country, because western people have belief in God, Chinese people believe in Buddhism, which are of two great differences. That is the reason why in the process of translation, factor of culture has to be reckoned, especially in the new eras. As Nord have ever put forward in Translating as a Purposeful Activity that ―A culture-specific phenomenon is one that is found to exist in a particular form or function in only one of the two cultures being compared‘‘ (Nord,2001:34), therefore culture will be compared at a time when people have different perceptions on things, in which language would be the first. The grammatically sentence structure and the pronunciation for example, have little in common regarding they belong to different language family.

Living environment is an element on deciding the formation of proverbs. Traditional Chinese people were busy doing farming, agriculture, so there are proverbs associated with them. Like “ 瓜熟蒂落” means things will be done when they are mature, and “人靠血样，苗考水活”means blood is a necessity for existence of human being as well as water to seedlings.” Moreover, a fruitful harvest is dependent on the weather, producing proverbs such as “三月三，著蓑衣，三月十五冷凄凄”, which means lunar early month has heavy and the middle is heavily cold. But for English proverbs, which are to a large extent related to fishery or marine affairs such as “to sink or swim”, “to keep one’s feet above water” and so many. Therefore both of the proverbs are created surrounding environment.

Except for living environment, living customs are also reflected on formation of proverbs. In different communities, people have different perception of things like animals. In Chinese proverbs, “杀鸡取卵” which equals to “kill the goose that lays golden eggs”, in which different animals are choose represent local customs. English proverbs would say that “look for a needle in a haystack”, which has a Chinese counterpart as “大海捞针”. It means that doing something is as difficult as finding out a small piece in an immerse container. Dog is also a featured sign that stand for different views in Chinese and English proverbs. In China, although dog is loyal to his master, it always leaves unrespectable impression on people, on the contrary, English love dogs and cherishes them so much sometimes even more than their family. Different cultural heritage and religious beliefs are also play a key role in the formation of proverbs. It is not hard to refer that understanding proverbs on the bases of translation is convenient for study foreign culture. With all the differences and sameness, within the range of translation, culture is a must during translation

3. Chapter 3 Translation Strategies for English Proverbs

Translation strategies have long been studied for a long time, during that time, domestication and foreignization have been considered as dominating strategies that were applied by a lot of scholars. Cross-culture exchange has gained great trend, especially in those years global communication between countries develops rapidly. It is true that here exists another method like “functional equivalent” created by famous scholar Eugene Nida who claims that in the process of translation source text and target text are both considered as author and reader are separated by the language or culture. The best function of translation is aiming to make source text as readable as reader-oriented text, which is popular in centuries ago in the era of underdeveloped cultural exchanges. In Chinese culture, the history of translation can also be traced to hundreds of years ago, some brilliant point of view like “信，达，雅”by Yan Fu, then it was changed into “信，达，切”by Liu Chongde. It means that translated text in which the flavor of text should be close to its original color of its culture. Taking what translation strategies into consideration should comply with the trend of culture exchange and its development.

=3.1 Domestication and Foreignization

Domestication is a target language oriented translation device, which is to change the flavor into reader’s meet. It is compatible with the taste of people who think their country is strong enough to set international standard and in which all other countries will prepare for the transmission of culture. It is the assimilation that causes translator to change resource text into native flavor. But for this phenomenon, the reason is that people’s recognition is limited and their hold self-importance to the most, therefore, everything from outside will be transmitted into domestic flavor. As communication of culture and technology grows rapidly and each country would like to strengthen its comprehensive power by take into foreign culture. As for translation strategies, which are still be reckoned which one should be adapted. Foreignization is a source language oriented translation device, which is to change the flavor into author’s meet. The roots of the terms “domestication” and “foreignization” can be traced back to the German philosopher Schleiermacher‘s argument in 1813 in a lecture on the different methods of translation, he found only two methods of affecting the domestic reader‘s understanding of the foreign author, “Either the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves the reader towards him; or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author towards him.” (Venuti, 2004:19-20).

In China, some scholars also have put forward their own opinions about the definitions of domestication and foreign. Among them, Lu Xun’s opinion is famous. He claimed that domestication was as “rewriting, changing the foreign story into Chinese story and changing the foreigners into Chinese” (罗新璋,1984:301), while foreign was “translation is like going abroad traveling, it must reflect the scene and flavor of the foreign country concerned.”(ibid,1984:301) Expect the definition of domestication and foreignization, translator when doing the work of translation should consider the perspective of culture and the intention of the writer as well as reader whether they want to the culture of source text to be originally intact or changed into readers’ culture.

3.2 Foreignization over Domestication for Translation

As far as social development is concerned, cultural exchange is more frequent than now or ever. In previous centuries, domestication is always been advocated by Chinese and western translators, as the exchange of economy and culture is not as common as today. Countries blindly think themselves as the leading one, so naturally take translated text as a respect from other countries. In translated works, any trace of alien culture is eliminated, in favor of own country’s culture to be admired and promoted. The awareness of culture is not developed people only unconsciously find that in their mind anything enters into their country is no foreign at all, because every product from aboard will be transferred into familiarly native fruit with sense of closeness. In another way, people at that time are barely having the chance to access to education, in particular for poor family most of them are illiterate. It is without saying that no room is left for people in their countries to study culture abroad while native culture still did not gain completely popularity. From the above being mentioned, at an early age, domestication has upper hand indeed. So in choosing translation strategies, it is no doubt that it should be domestication centered.

For another thing, as technology and economy develop from nowhere, cultural exchange between countries has witnessed great changes in the past decades. In highly developed areas, people in their countries universally receive full education in which their counties’ historical culture has been deeply absorbed. So, in the process of translation, foreign culture as novel things fulling with exotic flavor has attracted people a lot to see the differences and experience a foreign journey. The untouchable place of domestication did not enjoy its popularity an anymore for its limitation of spreading of foreign culture. Therefore, foreignization became more and more important as translation tool in the view of people’s eye. It not only translated the original foreign text into native character, but also carried the foreign special into domestic text. Take china for example, although as a developing country in the Asian, china has so much say in the stage of the world in the aspect of culture and world peace. Language as the bridge of communication, have to be understood by others in the way of translation. In one way or another, domestication and foreignization can both play the role in the translation, but from the perspective of culture, foreignization seems to weigh more in nowadays choosing translation strategies.  

4. Conclusion

Proverbs are culture-loaded words that has been transmitted and renewed from generation to generation as well as the changes of different eras. As a part of language and the product of culture, it is no exception that proverbs can be a medium, which offer the opportunity to learn language and culture. With the advent of new technology and wide economic communication, translation is playing an indispensable role in this process. Proper translation strategies are essential that whether foreign culture should be taken into consideration since it stands as the soft strength of a country. By considering this, foreignization has more superiority when compared with domestication. Foreignization as a trend translation, keeping the original culture intact to target readers, meanwhile can enrich a native country’s culture and expand vocabulary. There is no doubt that domestication is not totally worthless, regarding proverbs has multiple varieties, which cannot be translated simply by foreignization, therefore domestication is worked as supplementary tool assisting foreignization in translation.

Foreignization leaves the culture of source text untouched, wishing to give target reader exotic environment where readers experience different aspects of culture, like religion, belief, custom and others.

In the end, as cultural development and social progress is moving forward, foreignization has more advantages than domestication.  

5. References

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Translation of Chinese Neologisms from the Perspective of Cross-cultural Translation Theory

解帆 Xie Fan

Abstract

With the continuous enhancement of China's overall national strength and international influence, Chinese is playing an increasingly important role in communications and exchanges among countries all over the world. An increasing number of Chinese neologisms are used to express and describe the status quo. These neologisms invigorate Chinese culture, however, meanwhile, they make it harder for the world to understand Chinese.

On the one hand, each language has its own uniqueness in terms of word construction and expression. In reality, there are no two completely equivalent sign systems. On the other hand, different ethnic groups have different historical traditions, religious beliefs and way of thinking, which increases the difficulty of understanding. Therefore, cross-cultural translation becomes indispensable in popularizing Chinese culture. Through reviewing relevant paper, it’s easy to find that the late start of English translation of Chinese neologisms results in the immature translation of Chinese neologisms both at home and abroad, with some problems existing in the process of the translation of Chinese neologisms. Previous articles have pointed out these problems, but how to improve the quality of translation by avoiding them hasn’t been mentioned. This paper introduces the classifications and characteristics of Chinese neologisms, explains the significance of cross-translation theory to Chinese neologisms translation, and discusses ways of translating Chinese neologisms based on the previous viewpoints combining with examples.

Key words

Chinese neologisms; cross-cultural theory; English translation; strategies

摘要

随着我国综合国力和国际影响力不断增强，汉语在世界各国沟通与交流中起到越来越重要的作用，用来表达和描述社会状态的汉语新词也日益增多。这些新词给中国文化带来生命力的同时，也给世界人民理解汉语带来了困难。

一方面，语言本身存在着不可译性，每种语言在其组词造句、表达方式上都具有其独特性，现实中并不存在两种完全对等的符号系统。另一方面，不同的民族有着不同的历史传统、宗教信仰、思维方式，这尤其增加了语言理解的难度。因此，跨文化翻译成为中华文化传播过程中的重要一环。通过翻阅相关资料，不难发现由于汉语新词的英译起步较晚，国内外相关翻译研究尚未成熟，因此在英译汉语新词的过程中出现了一些问题。前人已有相关文章指出过这些问题，但没有提出如何才能避免这种问题、提高译文质量。基于前人的相关理论和观点，并结合实例，本文将首先介绍汉语新词分类及其特点，然后说明跨文化翻译理论对于英译汉语新词的意义，最后介绍在跨文化翻译理论下英译汉语新词时的几种方法，希望为后续规范汉语新词英译行为提供必要参考。

关键词

汉语新词；跨文化翻译；英译；策略

Introduction

With the growing power of China and the further improvement of the globalization, China's contact with other countries in the world has become closer. And how to maintain Chinese culture’s uniqueness when it is introduced to the world has been the top priority for translators. The development of China has given birth to a large number of Chinese neologisms with its uniqueness. The society changes with each passing day, covering from international affairs to domestic matters. Against this background, neologisms are likely to be derived. These words attract widespread attention and gradually enter people's daily life. Since the implementation of the reform and opening up to the outside world, a great number of Chinese neologisms have appeared.

Not only do these neologisms with Chinese characteristics vividly show Chinese people’s understanding of their unique phenomena, but also they largely enrich the expression of Chinese. However, at the same time, these words pose serious problems for translators as well. On the one hand, the differences between Chinese culture and western countries’ culture are numerous, which makes it hard to find equivalent of Chinese neologisms in English. On the other hand, with the times going forward, the number of Chinese neologisms is steadily increasing, which results in difficulties in translating Chinese neologisms into English. Therefore, Cross-cultural translation of Chinese neologisms into English becomes prevailing. Cross-cultural translation theory was proposed by Mary Snell Hornby in her well-known representative book Translation Studies: an Integrated Approach. She believes that translation is not a process of decoding or the transformation of language symbols, but also the transformation of cultural patterns. Due to the rapid development of Chinese society in the past decade, more and more translators have turned to Chinese neologisms, making the study of English translation of Chinese neologisms a new focus. Chinese Translators Journal, Lexicographical Studies and other authoritative academic journals have set up columns for translation of Chinese neologism. There are also vocabulary books compiled according to the specific types of Chinese neologisms, such as Chinese-English Expressions of Current Events by Yang Quanhong and English Translation of Buzzwords and Sayings by Chen Dezhang. In addition, the most representative ones include Yang Quanhong's Approaches to Translation of Chinese Words and Expressions into English and Zhang Jian's On Translation of Chinese Press Neologisms into English. In the age of information, it is not hard to find English translation of Chinese neologisms on English learning websites such as https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/, https://www.en84.com/ and so on. These websites have launched platforms for English translation of Chinese neologisms and updated them timely. So far, scholars have studied Chinese neologism from different perspectives. This paper is based on 138 related articles including these key words such as “cross-cultural theory” “Chinese neologisms” and “English translation” on http://kns.cnki.net. Fu Rong narrated the difficulties and methods in The English Translation of Chinese Neologism from a Cross-cultural Perspective. Zhou Hongjie elaborated on the basic principles, methods and key points in The English Translation of Chinese neologisms from a Cross-cultural Perspective. In addition, a majority of articles analyzed the status quo in the English translation of Chinese neologisms from the perspective of cross-cultural translation theory, but few dwell on strategies of solving the problems during the course of translation. This paper introduces Chinese neologisms and its classifications and characteristic in the second section, the significance of cross-translation to Chinese neologisms in the third section and ways of translating in the fourth section. It is based on the previous viewpoints and puts forward practical strategies to be followed in the translation of Chinese neologisms from the perspective of cross-translation theory combining with examples.

Chapter 1 Overview of Chinese Neologisms

Neologisms are words new in connotation or form. In other words, they can either be new words created to express new concepts and phenomena in line with times or existing words given new meanings. These words help the further development of language, embody Chinese people's latest understanding of the world with the times going forward, and enrich the expression and promote transmission of Chinese language. (Fu Rong, 2015: 80) To better translate Chinese neologisms into English, we need to have a deeper understanding of Chinese neologisms, including its classifications and characteristics.

1.1 Classifications of Chinese Neologisms

Generally speaking, Chinese neologisms can be classified into four categories, namely, old words endowed with new meanings, Chinese abbreviations, newly generated words and loan words.

Old words endowed with new meanings, as the name suggests, are existent words that have been endowed with new meanings for reuse even though have been forgotten for a long time. (Li Chunjiang, 2015: 62) Take “备胎(spare tire)”as an example, which refers to an extra tire carried in a motor vehicle for emergencies. It now refers to a back-up, second line, just-in-case, or a B-plan or contingency, in other words, someone who is benched now. Besides, “粉(powder)”originally refers to fine powder used for makeup or paint, while it means having a crush on or adoring a famous celebrity now. With the changing society of China, the essential characteristics of the things or phenomena referred to by the old words have changed as well. Because of the uniqueness pf Chinese words, it may be defective to use substitute words and fail to reflect the pun. Not only does endowing the existing words with new meanings produce connection between old words and new meanings, but also reduces the trouble of creating new words.

Chinese abbreviations are the result of refining existing words. The process of extracting mainly depends on the importance of each part of the words. Those significant parts are selected to replace the lengthy words. The most common Chinese abbreviations can be divided into three forms. First, extracted initials. Such as “哥哥(brother)--GG”, “笑死我了(It’s so funny that I have a shortness of breathe)” and “漂亮小姐姐(good-looking sister)--PLXJJ”. Second, syllable imitation. Such as “呜呜呜 (onomatopoetic words of cry)--555”, “我爱你一生一世(I love you forever)--5201314” and “不要这样子(don’t do like this)--表酱紫”. Third: reduced words. Such as “很累，感觉不会再爱了(feel so tired that will not fall in love again)--累感不爱” and “躺着也中枪(a lying person can be shot as well)--躺枪”. Chinese abbreviations have their own laws of forming, so it is easy for us to understand as long as we recognize the laws of them. Besides, in the premise of reflecting the principle of simplicity and the purpose of economy frugality, Chinese abbreviations are helpful to ensure goog rationale and high semantic transparency. Nowadays, people are always pursing a simple and peaceful life, which gives rise to the frequent use of abbreviations. Nevertheless, the abbreviations of words should neither be arbitrarily imitated, nor be simply carried out by way of analogy. Instead, the abbreviations with the widest social acceptance should be selected through investigation and evidence collection from multiple aspects.

Newly generated words can be roughly divided into two types. The first is generated through metaphors, similes and metonymy. For instance, “虎妈(tiger mom) is defined as strict disciplinarian mothers who demand high achievement from their children and maintain control of their activities”, and“猫爸(cat dad)”refers to fathers who take a more softly approach to parenting, preferring to be emotionally sensitive, gentle and relaxed about rules and discipline, and they are in the belief that this kind of parenting will make their offspring self-sufficient and independent. With new things coming in, people need words to describe them but there are no ready expressions at hand. The metaphorical use of some expressions will do the job as it will reflect the same essence of the objects through metaphor. The second type is created with the arrival of new phenomenon. For instance, “APEC蓝” is employed to describe the quality air and the exceptionally blue sky in Beijing during the APEC meeting in 2014. And “蒜你狠”is used to illustrate the price of garlic which soared more than 100 times in 2010, even outstripping meat and eggs. A great number of new phenomena and new concepts spring up, however, it’s hard to describe them with the existing words. Under this circumstance, the vocabulary system needs to produce more new words to meet the requirements of social communication.

The advancement of globalization, communication and cooperation in some fields among countries are deepening day by day, which inevitably bring changes in language, and that is so-called “Chinese localization”. Loan words are “transformed” into Chinese words in accordance with the rules of pronunciation, semantics, structure and grammatical system of Chinese. In the mid-1970s, Taiwanese used “show--秀” as morphemes to match with "做" and "作". To the surprise of the editor, these newly created words were so well-received in the entertainment industry that a large number of words such as “歌舞秀、双人秀、真人秀、脱口秀”were produced. Nowadays, the neologism “秀儿” referring to those who like to show off their resources is widely accepted. Similarly, “博客、思客、播客、朋客、创客”appeared one by one. “客” was derived from “黑客(hacker)”, in other words, the word group of “X客” were generated.

1.2 Characteristics of Chinese Neologisms

In order to have better quality of translation of Chinese neologisms, translators need to have a deep insight into its characteristics. Chinese neologisms are characterized by cultural uniqueness, simplicity, vividness and uncertainty.

Chinese neologisms come from a wide range of sources, but they all have roots in China. Some are based on Chinese culture. For instance, “山寨(mountain fastness)”originated from Water Margin, which used to refer to the place where the poor live. But when used online, the original meaning is transformed to plagiarism, imitation, parody and other popular cultural phenomena. Others are on the basis of customs. Take “红色炸弹(red bomb)” as an example. Since Chinese traditional wedding ornament is red, the word "红色炸弹(red bomb)" is used to describe the overwhelming wedding invitations.

We are living in a fast-paced era. The speed of generation and transmission of information are accelerating. Under this situation, we crave for cost-effective communication. This status quo requires concise language. Chinese abbreviations exactly exemplify the simplicity. Abbreviations are condensed with rich information content, and effectively reinforce the expressiveness of Chinese vocabulary. Therefore, the number of abbreviations in vocabulary increases rapidly.

The appearance of Chinese neologisms meets people's needs to describe an object or a phenomenon more vividly. Such as “人艰不拆” means that since life has been so hard, some things should not be exposed. And “酸菜鱼”is used for persons who are jealous, ugly, and redundant to make fun of themselves. “剁手党”refers to the addicted shopping crowd. They buy countless things, but often regret after calming down, even vow to chop off their hands if they don't act rationally next time. The vividness of Chinese neologisms adds humorous effects to the expression.

With the crazy tempo of life, Chinese neologisms emerge in an endless stream. For one thing, with the increasing influence of network to people's life, online language is a shock to traditional language since many words are not compatible with Chinese language system. For another, neologisms fade away with the end of an event and are quickly replaced by neologisms with the times.

Chapter 2 Cross-cultural Translation Theory and Its Significance

As Chinese neologisms are rooted in Chinese culture, translators are supposed to turn to cross-cultural translation theory when translating Chinese neologisms into English. Hence, having a deep insight into it and its significance helps improve the quality of translation.

2.1 Hornby’s Cross-cultural Translation Theory

Cross-cultural translation theory refers to translation across cultural divide and be less influenced by factors such as politics, religions, regions and ideologies. Cross-cultural translation theory was put forward by German translation theorist Mary Snell-Hornby. From her perspective, translation is a kind of cross-cultural communication. In this way, translators should not only have a bilingual ability, but also the cultural backgrounds of the source language and the target language. In reality, there are no two completely equivalent language systems. Each language has its own uniqueness in terms of word formation, sentence construction and expression, which is even more distinctive in translating into the target language with totally different economic, political, social and cultural backgrounds. Therefore, cross-cultural translation becomes a rigid demand. In the process of cross-cultural translation, translators are supposed to strike a balance between Chinese style and maximize the recipients’ understanding and acceptances’ of Chinese culture. Mary Snell-Hornby proposed that translators should skillfully switch the two languages in the process of translation as well as deeply dig into the culture backgrounds behind the two languages. In other words, translation is more bicultural transformation than bilingual transformation. (Wang Weidong, 2011: 78).

In the process of translation, the cultural deposits have a direct bearing on the expression of words, its connotations and emotions. Hence, translators must take these factors into consideration in translation. Cross-cultural translation theory has the following requirements for translation, which can be divided into three aspects: first, to express the meaning of the source language. Second, to dig out the cultural connotation of the source language. Third, to convey the emotion of the source language. Only when translator meets the three requirements above can the quality of the translation be guaranteed.

2.2 Significance of Cross-cultural Translation Theory

The significance of Cross-cultural Theory to English Translation of Chinese Neologisms can be divided into the following three aspects. The British historian Dr. Toynbee once said, it is not surprising to say that the 21st century belongs to East Asia led by China for China’s control over East Asia is not merely political, but cultural. Though East Asian countries such as Korea and Japan maintain their political independence, they are strongly influenced by Chinese culture.” Therefore, promoting English translation of Chinese neologisms is very important for enriching the world language system, improving China’s soft power and introducing Chinese culture into the world.

2.2.1 Learning the Chinese Idiomatic Expression

Translators can learn the rules of Chinese word-formation and characteristics of Chinese expression in the process of translating from the perspective of cross-cultural translation theory. There are great differences between Chinese and English word-formations. Take the three main forms of Chinese neologisms as example. Subject-predicate forms, such as “私聊” and“群聊”; Verb-object forms, such as: “煞风景”“抬杠”; Complementary forms, such as: “吓尿”and so on. In English vocabulary system, most compound words are in the form of nouns, while Chinese has a variety of parts, such as verbs, nouns and adjectives. Translators can grasp the characteristics of Chinese word-formation through the translation and readers can understand the Chinese idiomatic expression.

2.2.2 Spreading Chinese Culture Contained in Chinese Neologisms

Chinese neologisms are produced in China’s distinctive environment, containing culture with Chinese characteristics. It is an effective way to spread Chinese culture contained in Chinese neologisms through cross-cultural translation. For example, “打虎” and “拍蝇” have become buzzwords in China these years. In fact, both above two neologisms are political terms. The “tigers” refer to corrupt officials at higher level and “flies” at grassroots level. Chinese neologisms are epitomes of China's development in a certain period, carrying much social information. The world can learn about the development of China through Chinese neologisms. Accordingly, determination of Chinese government to take out “tigers” and swat “flies” can be seen through these coinage of new terms such as “打虎” and “拍蝇”. Therefore, cross-cultural translation helps spread Chinese culture contained in Chinese neologisms.

2.2.3 Conveying Emotion Expressed by Chinese Neologisms

Emotional expressions are essential to translation of Chinese neologisms. Translation of Chinese neologisms from the perspective of cross-cultural translation theory helps to convey emotion expressed. For example, it is not proper to translate“和事佬”into“peacemaker”. In Chinese, “和事佬”refers to persons who are unprincipled and blindly promote reconciliations, with derogatory meaning. While in English, “peacemaker” refers to those who create and safeguard peace, with commendatory emotions. Therefore, if the cross-cultural principles are violated in translation, there will be differences in the expression of emotions, which will hinder the expression of real emotions and lead to misunderstanding.

Chapter 3 Methods of Chinese Neologisms Translation

To improve the quality of Chinese neologisms translation, translators need to have a full knowledge of problems existing in the process of the translation of Chinese neologisms, and then avoid them by choosing appropriate ways of translating and following principles of cross-cultural translation theory. The late start of English translation of Chinese neologisms results in the immature translation of Chinese neologisms both at home and abroad, with some problems existing in the process of the translation of Chinese neologisms.

Nowadays, it is common to see rigid translation, which leads to failure to convey its true meaning. For example, if “我好方”is translated into “I’m so square”, it will confuse readers. In fact, this neologism refers to people in panic. As its word “方”pronounces similarly to the word “慌”，it is employed to make fun of those who can't distinguish between “f”sound and “h” sound. Similarly, “蓝瘦，香菇” can’t be translated into “blue monsters and shiitake mushrooms” for it refers to “I’m so sad that I’m going to cry”. Hence, rigid translation will result in misunderstanding. Not only should we make translations interesting, but also we need to ensure they are correct.

Many Chinese neologisms, after being translated into English, can express their meanings accurately, though fairly lengthy. For instance, if“无语”is translated into “have nothing to say”, it seems a little bit lengthy. We can translate it into“speechless”, instead. When translating Chinese neologisms, translators are supposed to use as few words as possible to accurately convey as much information as possible, making readers spend as little time as possible to understand them.

Till now, many neologisms lack Chinese uniqueness after being translated into English. For example, “杠精”will lose the uniqueness the word“精”carries if it is translated into“argumentative person”. In China, “精”commonly describe demons and ghosts, with derogatory meaning, such as those used in“白骨精”“蜘蛛精”and“蜈蚣精”. In this case, it is not proper to translate“精”into “person”. Therefore, we need to ensure Chinese culture be spread in the process of translation.

3.1 Transliteration

Transliteration is the translation of Chinese neologisms into English which sounds similarly to Chinese. Transliteration of Chinese neologisms into English can fully retain the pronunciation of Chinese and traditional Chinese culture. What’s more, it is more efficient.

Zeng Lisa once proposed that translators should accurately convey more information with as few words as possible, so that the audience can obtain the clearest and smoothest information with as little time as possible. Transliteration gives priority to efficiency and can meet the requirements of the fast pace of modern society, improve the communicative efficiency of readers, and save space for readers' cognitive ability to play.

For example, "大妈" is transliterated into "dama" and entered the Oxford dictionary. In addition to this, there are a sea of transliterations of Chinese neologisms in modern English vocabulary, for example: "风水" (fengshui), "八卦" (bagua), "太极" (taichi), "气功" (qigong), and "武术 "(wushu), "功夫" (kungfu), "胡同" (hutong), "麻将" (mahjong), "叩头" (while), and so on. Transliteration makes Chinese neologisms widely spread and its culture behind. However, if translators stick to the literal interpretation or explanatory translation of some words, it may lead to cumbersome words and poor quality.

3.2 Literal Translation

Literal translation is one of the efficient way of translation. Literal translation enables us to directly find equivalent expressions in English in terms of form, style and connotation, which is the perfect embodiment of "commonness" between English and Chinese. Above all, literal translation helps promote Chinese culture.

Language carries and transmits culture, as it is the heart of the cultural system. Culture influences and even shapes language, which is the foundation of language and the source of innovation. In the current context of cross-cultural communication, translation is not only a process of language conversion, but also a process of cultural transplantation.The transmission between eastern and western cultures is practical in theology, but it is limited in reality. Chinese neologisms are the most active part of Chinese vocabulary, which reflect the way of thinking, values, customs and lifestyles formed by the Chinese people in the new natural and social environment. Therefore, literal translation works for spreading Chinese culture.

In modern English, examples of literal translation of Chinese neologisms can be found everywhere, such as “一国两制--one country, two systems”, “二孩政策--two-child policy”, “希望工程--Hope Project” and “好久不见long time no see” and so on. Literal translation is straightforward, concise and efficient. Not only can it effectively reduce the boredom caused by the transformation from Chinese to English, enrich the expressiveness of English, but also maximize the retention of Chinese cultural.

Therefore, it is necessary to interpret or add annotations in the context, otherwise it is difficult to convey its Chinese characteristics and cultural connotation.

3.3 Free Translation

Free translation is another way of translating, which emphasizes the relative independence of both Chinese and English. On the one hand, differences exist in different language systems including grammatical constructions and expressions. On the other hand, there are quite a few distinctions between different cultures including historical traditions, religious beliefs and even ways of thinking, ways of thinking. Therefore, sometimes free translation is required to avoid misunderstanding and disputes.

Free translation refers to reproduce the matter without the manner, or, the content without form. Put another way, it explains the general idea of Chinese neologisms. For example, “豆腐渣工程” refers to the construction project that collapsed or did not comply with relevant regulations due to cutting corners in the construction process. It is translated into English as “jerry-built project”. “白色污染”, the pollution of the environment by plastic waste that is difficult to degrade, is translated as “plastic pollution”. In a word, although the paraphrased neologisms need not strictly stick to Chinese, it can better reflect the meaning of Chinese.

Conclusion

The emergence of Chinese neologisms demonstrates a new face of China. Neologisms are new in content, form, and content, which are produced to express new concepts and phenomena. However, due to the obvious cultural differences between China and western countries, there are many obstacles in the course of translating Chinese neologisms into English. Neologisms are perhaps the number one problem for non-literary translators and professional translators. Under this circumstance, cross-cultural translation of Chinese neologisms becomes a prevailing trend. Cross-cultural translation refers to translating crossing cultural divide and being less influenced by factors such as politics, religions, regions and ideologies. In a way, translating Chinese neologisms into English from the perspective of cross-cultural translation theory can help to promote understanding of Chinese. In another, it can effectively convey the emotions expressed by neologisms. Moreover, it can help to promote the spread of Chinese culture. In spite of the continuous standardization and improvement of translation, there are still some problems in the process of translating Chinese neologisms into English, such as rigid translation, wordy translation and translation with cultural loss. English translation of Chinese neologisms may be a daunting problem, so we need translators with joint efforts, both stick to effective translation methods, flexible and innovative, and latest changes, in order to improve the overall quality of translation of Chinese neologisms, thus speak up aloud in the international community. In this paper, three main strategies are suggested, and they are transliteration, literal translation, and free translation. To better translate Chinese neologisms from the perspective of cross-cultural translation theory, translators need to adopt compatible ways of translating with different types of Chinese neologisms and target readers. On the one hand, it is necessary to fully grasp Chinese neologisms, which requires translators to have more knowledge of Chinese cultural background and Chinese idiomatic expression. On the other hand, we should find the way of translating which is most accepted by readers.

Moreover, Chinese neologisms are constantly updated with the development of the society. If we do not keep pace with the times and know the latest meaning of Chinese neologisms, it may lead to misunderstanding. (Tian Longjiao, 2013: 160) Therefore, translators should constantly supplement, update or revise the English translation of those Chinese neologisms without definite translation, which is an important guarantee to keep the English translation of Chinese neologisms accurate. Advancing with the times often requires translators to pay close attention to the post-translation effect. On the other hand, translators should also constantly draw on new English words. Chinese neologisms have strong timeliness, especially with the increase of Internet users, hence, at any one time emerge Chinese neologisms which are closely associated with the society. In short, in the process of translation, translators must pay attention to riding on the trend of the times so as to update the expression of the target language and readily accepted by readers. Update expressions means keeping up with the development of the times and use idiomatic English to illustrate new things, new words and new expressions. In other words, on the basis of grasping the exact meaning of Chinese neologisms, we should make it understood in English. Translators should not only improve their ability to understand Chinese, enhance their ability to translate Chinese into English, but also be keeping with the times so as to introduce more Chinese neologisms into English and continuously inject more Chinese elements into English. In this way, Chinese culture can be spread and the expression of English can be innovated.

References

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Translation of Dish Names

Abstract

With increasing global influence, the task of cultural communication is a formidable project. Translation as a media plays an important role in cultural communication. A Bite of China, a TV program to introduce Chinese dishes, has gained popularity at home and abroad, thus broadcasting Chinese dishes. But difficulties in translating Chinese dishes are evitable considering abundant culture-loaded expressions and complex cooking skills. The essay discusses theoretical and practical significance of researching Chinese dish names. We summarize some point of views from other scholars. Also, we analyze the difficulties in translating Chinese cuisines from a functional equivalence perspective. Combined with translation examples, we discuss three strategies for translating Chinese dish names.

Keywords

Chinese-English translation; Chinese dish names; functional equivalence

摘要

中国国际影响力不断提高，文化交流的使命更加艰巨。翻译作为文化交流媒介，其重要性也不容忽视。中国饮食文化节目《舌尖上的中国》在海内外热播也进一步推动了中国特色饮食文化的传播，但是其丰富的文化内涵和多样的烹饪技巧也给译者带来不少困难。本文探讨研究中国菜名翻译的理论和实践意义，总结中国菜名翻译目前的研究成果。从功能对等理论出发，分析中国菜名翻译的困难，同时也结合翻译实例，提出三个中国菜名翻译的策略。

关键词

中译英；中国菜名；功能对等

I.Introduction

As the old Chinese saying goes, food is the God of the people. In other words, we regard food as the primary need. Chinese cuisine has a firm connection between our daily life and Chinese culture. But when it comes to Chinese cuisine, there are many aspects left for us to consider, such as the etiquette of dining table, dietary structure or habits, the art of dietary decorations and cultural connotation. In the chapter, we will mainly focus on Chinese dish names. From semantic linguistic point of view, there are two structure in a language. The surface structure is Chinese dish names themselves, but the deep structure is the meaning behind these dish names. It’s not surprising that we will discuss the relationship between some Chinese dish names and their cultural connotation in the later part of this chapter. Chinese dish names are endowed with Chinese culture through culture-loaded expressions or idioms. When we dive into our research, it’s easy to find out that behind some dish names from historical stories and anecdotes are layer upon layer of meanings. Although the majority of us understand the importance of translating Chinese dish names, good translations still remain in the dark. The reasons abound, ranging from a great variety of Chinese dishes and difficulty in fully understanding of cultural connotation behind Chinese dishes.

The chapter takes functional equivalence coined by Eugene Nida as a theoretical basis. In the first part, we look back on previous studies on the C-E translation of Chinese dish names. In the second part, we try to discuss difficulties in translating Chinese dish names in terms of basic information and cultural backgrounds. In the third part, we review functional equivalence theory. In the last part, we turn to discuss the possibility of applying the theory into translation practice on Chinese dish names in order to improve C-E translation of Chinese cuisine. We consolidate commonly used strategies into three combined with translation examples in reality. And then we summarize what we have discussed before and to point out limitations of this chapter. The purpose of our research is to have a better understanding of our own culture and transmitting Chinese culture to foreigners. Apart from cultural aspect, cultural communication interconnects with economic and political aspect, which is one of reasons why China attaching much importance to cross-cultural communication and transmission.

II.Previous Studies on the C-E Translation of Chinese Dish Names

There are some scholars who have paved the way for our further researches. Among these researches, almost all of scholars share the same Chinese cultural background. Some of them describe strategies for C-E translation of Chinese dish names based on several translation theories. Others analyze the C-E translation of Chinese dish names at restaurants abroad. Zhang Tingli (2015) summarized six characteristics of Chinese dish names based on A Bite of China, a popular TV program in China. Below are six characteristics: place names plus ingredients, personal names plus ingredients, main ingredients plus supplementary ingredients, cooking procedures, various flavors and cultural elements. Li Weiwei (2017) wrote a report on Chinese-English cuisine interpretation under the guidance of Skopos Theory, including the Skopos rule, the coherence rule, the fidelity rule and the loyalty rule. Che Yimo (2019) summarize three principles to analyze the menu translation quality of a Chinese restaurant based on cross-cultural communication theories. The three principles include semantic proximity, cultural communication and aesthetics. Xue Jingnan (2015) involves an analysis of the translation of Chineseness by Chinese-Candians in food discourse from a cultural perspective, which providing a glimpse into Chinese culinary identity. Similiarly, Lee Yi Yan (2016) mainly focus on cultural and sociological phenomenon behind Chinese food. His research is based on two types of popular Chinese food narratives: Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman published in 1994 with a televisual documentary series A Bite of China released in 2012. As the chapter published in International Communication of Chinese Culture (2018), four scholars collected from Malaysian Chinese weddings and the lunar new year celebration in order to investigate the concrete and abstract naming of Chinese dishes and to discuss the common cultural considerations underlying them. They found that concrete naming deals with the tangible aspects of a dish by incorporating method of preparation, taste/aroma, appearance of dish, as well as container used. Under the guidance of their chapters, we are able to explore more in this infinite sphere. We pay tributed to great efforts they have paid. While researches on the C-E translation of Chinese dish names have spread into most sectors, researches from a functional equivalence theory are few because previous scholars mainly apply Skopos theory and cross-cultural theory into their researches. In the chapter, we will discuss the C-E translation of Chinese dish names coupled with functional equivalence theory. In the next part, we will turn to existing problems in the C-E translation of Chinese dish names.

III.Existing Difficulties on the C-E Translation of Chinese Dish Names

(1) Difficulty in Transmitting Basic Information of Chinese Dish Names

Different translation versions of a Chinese dish always make foreigners confused. For example, there are at least three versions of 炮弹鱼, including Shell fish, bullet mackerel and trigger fish. We often blur the lines between scientific name and general name in our translation. Also, sometimes we seem to ignore distinct difference between two things by using the same name to define them. For example, some translators use bamboo fungus and edible tree fungus to stand for竹笋 and 木耳 respectively, but in reality 竹笋is completely different from 木耳. There are some subtle differences among Chinese dishes. As Mo Chuanxia and Yue Lin (2020) mentioned in their chapter, 水米籺is cooked rice pounded into paste with stuffing inside for worship or diet. 籺is a defining food for South China, especially in Guangdong provinces. It is totally different from cake or pastry in Western culture. The best way to translate it is to use explanatory words. Below are some C-E translations related to Chinese dishes: 黄馍馍(yellow steamed bun), 肉夹馍(the marinated meat in baked bun), 榴莲酥(crispy durian cake) and蒿子粑粑(crown daisy rice cake). Everyone who has ever eaten these four kinds of food will have an inkling of knowledge about the different flavor and shape between 黄馍馍and肉夹馍. Likewise, the word “sausage” is insufficient to translate 血肠, 腊肠 and 香肠. For some well-known Chinese food such as tofu, it’s unnecessary to translate it into bean curd as in 油豆腐(fried bean curd puff). It seems to be nonessential part in translating Chinese dish names because we often are encouraged to create our own translation. But for long-term effects, chaos will lead to negative impact on economic benefits of those Chinese dishes and cross-cultural communication.

Judging from a great variety of cooking techniques in many Chinese dish names, they bring a lot difficulties in the rendering of Chinese cuisine. In Chinese, there are a lot of verbs to describe how to cook. I list some common verbs below: 炒, 煮, 炖, 炸, 煎, 煲, 蒸, 烧, 焖 and 拌. But when it comes to C-E translation, we translators seem to ignore these verbs and use the same "with" structure to translate all of them as in 莴笋炒火腿(Stir-fried ham with asparagus lettuce), 莲藕炖排骨(Stewed ribs with lotus root) and 虾子焖茭白(Shrimp roe stewed with cane shoots). On top of these commonly used verbs, some verbs are really difficult to understand for native speakers who are unfamiliar with cooking, let alone for foreigners. The four words list below is a case in point: 煸, 焙, 焗 and 烩. The reason behind this phenomenon lies in lacking language about cooking techniques. The word list in this paragraph is more about the duration and degree of heating while cooking Chinese cuisine. As a translator, we should not only know general translation skills that can applied to a large number of texts, but also should have the inkling of other fields. Without background knowledge on cooking procedures, they will be stumbling blocks for translators striving for concise and accurate renderings.

After discussing cooking techniques in Chinese dish names, we will turn to the different flavor of Chinese cuisine. When burying myself into oceans of Chinese dishes, I divide all sorts of flavors into two categories. In the first category, word list includes 酸辣, 三鲜, 川味, 麻辣, 卤味, 家常, 酱香, 五香, 香辣 and 酥. In the second category, 孜然, 铁板, 鼓汁, 姜汁, 泡椒, 糖醋 and 蒜泥 will put in a group because these nouns mainly derived from ingredients and cooking utensils rather than the flavor itself. The main function of these words are not referential but beautifying. The flavor of delicious Chinese cuisine was represented by these beautifying words, thus triggering mouth-watering effect. But it's hard for target reader to get the same effect as source reader through translation due to lacking equivalent words and expressions. Likewise, some Chinese words that refer to all sorts of food don't have equivalent one in English such as 什锦, 八宝 and 拼盘. If we translate them into "all sorts of food", the aesthetic effect weaken. Whereas the translation loss and gain are inevitable, underlying aesthetic effect plays an imporant role in translation process. On top of this, cuisines with Chinese characteristics lead to translation problems. Below are some Chinese dish names: 红豆沙, 撞奶, 龟苓膏, 木瓜雪耳羹 and 蛋白果糖水. Lexical vacancy leads to losing the adding touch that brings a work of art to life. Many translators tend to use word-for-word rendering to translate these Chinese dish names such as 红豆沙(orange flavored red bean paste). Since Chinese dish names not only contains basic information of main ingredients and cooking skills but also mirrors culinary identity and wisdom, translators are supposed to pay considerable attention to convey layers of meaning in Chinese dish names.

(2) Difficulty in Considering Different Cultural Backgrounds

Diffference between Western culture and Chinese culture leads to problems in culture-loaded Chinese dish names. Chinese dish names are endowed with good omen. 鸳鸯锅(double-flavor hot pot) is a case in point. In Chinese culture, 鸳鸯 is a symbol of beautiful love and perfect marriage. But the beautiful underlying meaning lost in Western culture. Appropriate ways to deal with culture-loaded words or expression become an issue in the C-E translation of Chinese dish names. Though double-flavor hot pot conveys the basic information of this dish, signified meaning still remains in the darkness. Likewise, attention-grabbing Chinese dish names combined with Chinese culture background lead to translation problems such as 刀板香(sliced salted pork) and 片儿川(noodles with preserved vegetable) . 刀板香 is a traditional pickled food in Anhui province. Through its dish names, it's difficult to know the main ingredients of this dish. A story lies behind the dish: When a person called Hu Zongxian came by one of his teachers, the wife of his teacher treated him with a delicious dish made by pork slices. Hu Zongxian felt satisfied with the dish and named it as "刀板香". 片儿川 is the most well-known dish in 奎元馆(a famous restaurant in Hangzhou). In the Qing Dynasty, there were many examinees rushing to join a ancient test for selecting officials in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Examinees from all over the country gathered in Hangzhou. In order to attract them, the shopkeeper supplied noodles made of pour-sweet vegetables, bamboo shoots, and pork slices. Three eggs were added to breakfast noodles, which contained a good omen for examinees. Therefore, a large number of examinees often came to eat noodles because Kuiyuan’s noodles were so cheap. Later, one of the examinees was got number one in a round of test. When he went to the store to thank the owner, he found that the restaurant didn't have a name. So he named it "Kuiyuan Hall". Since then, 片儿川 in Kuiyuan Hall has become famous and tables in Kuiyuan Hall are in full bloom. All those who come to Hangzhou to take the exam will come here to eat noodles for good luck. 片儿川 has specially meaning for the person who are going to test. Similarly, foreign foods invade into our daily life with increasing cultural communication. The origin of 罗宋汤(Borscht) is in Ukraine. 罗宋 is the transliteration of Russian and is originated from the early Shanghai Pidgin English. Russian Borscht (Borshch) is another commonly used name. During the October Revolution (in Russia, 1917), a large number of Russians moved to Shanghai. They brought vodka and Russian-style western cuisine. The first western-style cuisine restaurant in Shanghai was opened by the Russians. This soup evolved from the Russian-style red cabbage soup. The Russian-style red cabbage soup is spicy and sour but Shanghai people are not used to it. Later, influenced by local taste, it gradually formed a unique Shanghai-style borscht. In Shanghai-style borscht, we take beets as the main ingredient with supplements such as potatoes and carrots, spinach and beef, cubes and butter. From what we discussed before, we can conclude that Chinese dish names often pay considerable attention to good connotation. Abstract meaning mainly derived from legends, idioms, historical events and auspicious words. When we start to translate Chinese cuisine, cultural considerations are indispensable part to consider. It should be noted that translators take the responsibility to fill the gap between Chinese culture and Western culture.

Except for source cultural background, target cultural background is also of great importance. When it comes to cultural taboos, 龙(dragon) is the first symbol coming to our mind. Whereas 龙 are often embedded with good connotation in Chinese culture such as good fortune and bright future, 龙 often stands for brutal animal or person as in the well-known epic Beowulf. Below are some Chinese dish names with 龙: 龙抄手 (Easter Bunny Wonton), 龙须面(fine noodles) and 乌龙吐珠 (Sea Cucumber with Quail Eggs). Some translators replace dragon with bunny due to different preference between Chinese culture and Western culture. Others omit word-for-word translation, rather emphasizing the main ingredients of the dish. In addition, some Chinese dish names with internal organs such as intestines or blood may keep target readers at bay. For example, in 肠粉(Steamed vermicelli roll) and 脑花(brain or brain flower), the former hightlights main ingredients rather than being confined to word-for-word translation, but the latter fails to arouse target reader's appetite. Further explanation and translation skills are involved in these dish names. Other examples include 夫妻肺片(Sliced Beef and Ox Tongue in Chili Sauce) and 撒尿牛丸(juicy beef ball). Word-for-word translation can be confusing or even disgusting for people who are unfamilar with Chinese dishes. 夫妻肺片 is a well-known dish mainly made by ox tongue, tripe and beef. Guo Chaohua (husband) and Zhang Tianzheng (wife) created the dish. Nowadays, it becomes part of Chuan cuisine. Contrary to the dish name, lungs of different animals are not the main component of the dish because 肺片 is originated from 废片. 废片 is a humourous name for all sorts of sliced internal organs. Likewise, though juicy beef ball conveys the basic information of the dish, it loses its attraction and refreshing impression. Therefore, target readers will have totally different feeling from source readers. The equivalence between SL and TL can be broken. In the next part, we will have a brief review of functional equivalence theory in order to discuss the application of the theory into C-E translation of Chinese dish names.

IV.Functional Equivalence Theory

Functional Equivalence put forward by Eugene. A. Nida, a renowned American linguist and translation theorist. Functional equivalence theory focus on the verbal comparison between the SL and TL. Nida attempts to offer a new way to produce an equivalent, taking the relationship of the receptor to the text into account. Functional equivalence theory developed from dynamic equivalence. He defined dynamic equivalence as "the quality of a translation in which the message of the original text has been so transported into the receptor language that the response of the receptor is essentially like that of the original receptors. Translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style” (Nida, 1969). In the later works, he thought that the adequacy of a translation depended on “the reliability of the text itself, the discourse type, the intended audience, the manner in which the translated text is to be used, and the purpose for which the translation has been made” (Nida, 1993, p.127). Under the influence of Eugene. A. Nida, other subsequent scholars also put forward their own understanding of functional equivalence. In the views of Christian Nord, the translator recreates the text in target language by keeping some source-text information or linguistic elements invariant and adapting the rest to the receivers’ background knowledge, expectations and communicative needs or to such factors as medium-restrictions and deixis requirements (Nord, 2001). The term the closest natural equivalent implies that the rendering must be readable (related to the language form) and understandable (related to the content) to the target receptors, since different languages have different features of grammar and lexicon. Functional-equivalence requires the highest degree of proximity (Zhang Qing & Wang Jiaqi,2010: 880-888). The translation is a reproduction process of source text in target language, observing the target culture. The target language features in terms of contents, sentence structure and lexis should be considered as criteria to adapt the source text before translating. The source text elements that do not fit in target culture should be revised or even neglected in translating so as to transfer the flavor of source text while not violating target culture (Yue Siwei, 2013: 61-68). In Nida's view, the success of the translation depends above all on achieving equivalent response. It is one of the four basic requirements of a translation (Jeremy Munday, 2016), which are 1. making sense; 2. conveying the spirit and manner of the original; 3. having a natural and easy form of expression; 4. producing a similar response. He pays great attention to equivalence and reader's response. Nida's functional equivalence theory has gone through three stages of development ranging from formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence to functional equivalence. The core of Nida's theoretical framework is mainly functional equivalence. Functional equivalence is mainly to enable translation and original text to be equivalent in language function, rather than language form correspondence. The reader of the target language should fully understand the customs, social consciousness and habitual expression mentioned in the original context. This receptor-oriented approach considers adaptations of grammar, of lexicon and of cultural references to be essential in order to achieve naturalness. The target language should not show interference from the source language and the foreignness of the source text setting is minimized. Except for equivalence, reader's response pays an important role in functional equivalence theory. In contrast with traditional translations views towards the source text and the target text, functional equivalence translation pays considerable attention to the receptor‟s response and the naturalness of the target language rather than language forms as formal equivalence. Though later translation theorists critize Nida's functional equivalence given the impossibility of achieving functional equivalence in translation process, his functional equivalence has still paved the road away from traditional translation views by instilling fresh views into translation studies. Functional equivalence theory provides a glimpse into dealing with the relationship between target text and related cultural expectations. For real and practical translation, functional equivalence set the standard for what good translation is. So in the next part, we will discuss the application of this theory in the C-E translation of Chinese dish names.

V.Application of Functional Equivalence Theory in the C-E translation of Chinese Cuisine

4.1Princples of C-E translation of Chinese Cuisine

Principles on C-E translation abound given different original texts. When it comes to C-E translation of Chinese Cuisine, two principles should be mentioned. What comes first is faithfulness. The translator is supposed to translate the basic information of Chinese cuisine. Sometimes, ingredients and cooking procedures should be included into the translation process. The main purpose of our translation is to inform target readers, especially foreigners who know nothing about Chinese. In Chinese, we often use the number three to represent three kinds of ingredients. Therefore, we translators should list three ingredients clearly in translation process. For example, in 扣三丝,some translators render it into Chicken, mushroom, ham threads in consommé. Though this rendering is in great detail, target readers can catch the point quickly. But for other larger numbers such as five and eight, listing all ingredients will lead to clumsiness. 八宝菠菜(Spinach with Eight Delicacies) is a case in point. This is the living proof for precise and clear translation. Faithfulness is not equal to word-for-word translation. Various translation skills should be involved in translation process in order to arrive at the principle of faithfulness. But the principle of faithfulness is not enough for a good translation.

It’s noted that distinct cultural difference plays an important role in cultural communication. If a translator fails to delivery cultural connotation in a Chinese cuisine, these cultural-loaded dish names lost their attract towards foreigners. Even though native speakers are able to understand what a Chinese cuisine refers, the functional equivalence is out of balance. The purpose of our study is not only to provide a glimpse into informing foreigners when they barge into a Chinese restaurant, but also to spread Chinese culture behind Chinese cuisine. For example, in 烩南北(Stewed Mushrooms with Winter Bamboo Shoots), target readers fail to get the meaning from original words. Literal translation doesn’t fit in this Chinese cuisine because ingredients and cooking procedures are difficult to understand unless we dig more information on the Internet. The origin of the dish name lies in two different ingredients. Bamboo shoots are most in the south of China and mushrooms are most in the north of China. The combination of bamboo and mushroom represents the combination of culture in two parts of China. The precious value of Stewed mushrooms with winter bamboo shoots also lies in the combination of two precious ingredients. The same goes for榆钱饭(Elm Seeds Meal). 榆钱 is originally an ingredient in Shangxi province. But the dish name also bodes well for well-off or prosperous future. Chinese people attribute their wish of getting more money into the word 钱(money). It sounds vulgar but the true wish is to live a better life. When translating Chinese cuisine, translators should consider the different cultural backgrounds in order to spare no efforts to broadcast Chinese culture. On top of this, some dish names are complicated to render them. For example, 龙, an image with red and gold color, refers to good wishes for prosperous future in China but it’s disgusting in Western culture. Therefore, when we translate龙抄手, the word 龙 should be replaced by other words. Some translators try to translate it into Easter Bunny Wonton. Also, the same goes for words referring to internal organ. 肠粉is a case in point. A dish name with intestines will lead to vomiting before eating. What’s more, the main ingredient in肠粉has nothing about intestines. Steamed vermicelli roll is a better translation version. The most scary and well-known Chinese dish name I have heard is 夫妻肺片. But the power of ingenious translation can help foreigners understand this dish and avoid awkwardness ahead of them. While broadcasting Chinese culture, culture taboos in the culture of target readers also need to be taken into our consideration. After we have put forward two principles for C-E translation of Chinese cuisine, the next part will discuss some strategies available for translators in the translation process.

4.2Strategies for C-E translation of Chinese Cuisine

First and foremost, a large number of Chinese cuisines can apply literal translation in some way. The main cooking procedures, ingredients and skills should be very clear in dish names. Lexical equivalence is the main purpose of literal translation. Also, we can divide the application of literal translation into four parts. The first part is the combination of main ingredient and other supplementary ingredients. For example, in 羊肚包肉, roasted mutton wrapped in lamb tripe can avoid ambiguity. The most special ingredient in the dish is roasted mutton, which delivers some flavors to target readers. We can also render “番茄牛腩” into tomato and beef brisket. The spicy beef briskets and sour tomatoes arouse different feelings in the heart of target readers. Sometimes, the flavor of a dish makes itself clear in the name of a dish. When we use literal translation, the flavor of a dish such as剁椒 and 家常 cannot be ignored. For example, in剁椒鸭肠(Duck Intestines with Chili) and家常烧蹄筋(Home-Style Braised Beef Tendon), Chili and home-style not only inform foreigners of basic information of this dish, but also arouse a sense of taste in their mouths. The third part of the application of literal translation is the combination of utensils and ingredients such as 砂锅面(Casserole Noodles). In Chinese, 砂锅 is a utensil for cooking. But with increasing popularity of noodles cooking by casseroles, casserole noodles have become a Chinese dish. The last part of the application of literal translation lies in the combination of cooking methods, eating methods and ingredients. 手抓饼(Shredded Cake) is a case in point. Opposed to forks in Western culture, Chinese tend to use chopsticks. Therefore, Shredded Cake is a dish without using chopsticks or any other dinner sets. But literal translation is not a sliver bullet for all C-E translation of Chinese cuisine. Sometimes, a dish includes too much ingredients or cooking procedures. If we apply to literal translation in the case, we will sacrifice simplicity in order to maintain faithfulness. Also, some translators applied to literal translation with annotation in order to render dish names clearly. For instance, let’s take “长寿面”, a cuisine name from A Bite of China as an example. The translation provided in “longevity noodles”, followed by the annotation “the noodles are long and slim, and long is homophonic to ‘chang’ and slim to ‘shou’, ‘changshou’ means longevity”. In the case, not only can the foreigners know the basic meaning of the dish, they can also understand its cultural meanings (Chu Yiyi, 2017). Another example is螺蛳粉. Some translate it into Snail Rice-flour Noodles, a local snack in Liuzhou. Snail Rice-flour Noodles is very faithful to the Chinese dish name. But the translator added some explanations to emphasize local characteristics. The origin of Snail Rice-flour Noodles is in Liuzhou, Yunnan province. In the case, the translator tried to spread local culture in a dish name.

Secondly, dishes with local names can apply to transliteration such as兰州拉面 Lanzhou Beef Noodles), 金华火腿(Jinhua Ham) and重庆小面(Chongqing Small Noodles). Some local names have become a brand for selling. They emphasize the authentic flavor of these dishes in order to attract people from other places or countries. As for some culture-loaded dish names, we fail to find the equivalent words in English. That’s the reason why we resort to transliteration. It’s a translation method mainly depend on Chinese pinyin such as Lanzhou, Jinhua and Chongqing as we mentioned above. One of the perks of transliteration is to emphasize local characteristics and spread local cultures. But transliteration is not confined to this area. Some translators combine transliteration into literal translation. For instance, if we simply translate “东坡肉” literally into“Dongpo’s Pork” without any further explanations, the target readers will get confused if they first see the translation. Thus, explanation “Dongpo, a famous poet in Song Dynasty” needs to be added (Chu Yiyi, 2017). Some dish names are from foreign countries such as 生鱼片(Sashimi). Sashimi is Japanese way of speaking. Transliteration with sounds of foreign languages can apply to these Chinese dish names. Some translators also translate腌制泡菜 into kimchi rather than pickles cabbages, thus emphasizing Korean flavor rather than Chinese flavor. But there are few dish names originated from foreign languages.

Lastly, some Chinese cultural-loaded dish names fail to fit the framework of literal translation and transliteration. Translators should apply free translation into their translation process. There are four categories of free translation applied to C-E translation of Chinese cuisines: named according to the characteristics of ingredients metaphorically, named after historical allusions, named according to the production process metaphor and named after the meaning of good. As for the first category, 蚂蚁上树is a good example. The word-for-word translation of蚂蚁上树 is ants on a tree but it does not deliver the essence of the dish. The main ingredients of the dish are minced pork and fine vermicelli. The final dish is similar to ants on the tree, so Chinese give it a metaphorical dish name. Sauteed Vermicelli with minced Pork is a better version than the original translation. Some dish names are full of historical allusions such as霸王别姬. The deep-level meaning of the expression霸王别姬 is to reveal the tragic ending of a hero in history. But there is a coincidence for the combination of turtle and chicken in the dish 霸王别姬. Different from mandarin, Chinese people give a nickname “王八” for turtle. 姬in 霸王别姬 sounds similar to 鸡(chicken). The word-for-word translation of 霸王别姬 is farewell my Concubine, but turtle stewed chicken is easier to understand for target readers. As for the third category——named according to the production process metaphor, 驴打滚 is a case in point. 驴打滚 is one of the traditional snacks in the northeast China, especially in Beijing and Tianjin. It is a three-color snack with yellow, white and red. The final process of making is to sprinkle on the soybean noodles, which looks like wild donkeys rolling up of the loess in suburb, so we named it 驴打滚(Donkey Roll). But compared to donkey doll, fried chop rice cake shows the main ingredients of the dish, thus lowering the hurdles for understanding. As for the last category, 佛跳墙 is a case in point. The literal meaning of 佛跳墙 is that a Buddha jumps over the wall. But actually 佛跳墙 is a dish cooking all things in one pot. It comes from a story: when we open the jar, the smell of a dish become popular in other places as well. That attracts many Buddhas who jump over the wall to have a see. Also, the dish bodes well for longevity and reunion. That’s why we also call it 福寿全, a word full of good omens.

From strategies discussed above, we can find that there is no fixed pattern for C-E translation of Chinese cuisines. We translators should bear these principles and strategies in mind and put them into practice in our translation process. The ultimate goal for our translation is to produce a simple but accurate translation to inform target readers, especially foreigners.

VI.Conclusion

With the popularity of Chinese culture, there has been a resurgence of interests in C-E translation of Chinese cuisine. In this chapter, I discussed the previous studies on this topic with functional equivalence theory in order to emphasize the importance of our research and try to find research gap among these chapters. After discussing the existing problems on C-E translation of Chinese cuisine, I summarized some principles and strategies that can apply to C- E translation of Chinese cuisine. But what I discussed in the chapter is only a panoramic view of Chinese dish names. There are eight classifications of Chinese famous cuisines ranging from Lu Cuisine and Chuan Cuisine, Yue Cuisine and Min Cuisine, Su Cuisine and Zhe Cuisine, Xiang Cuisine and Hui Cuisine. Under these eight Chinese cuisines, there are distinct differences in dish names considering region and ethnic group. As we know, one size can’t fit all. Aside from researches on Chinese dish names, cultural elements behind idioms related to Chinese dishes deserve more attention.

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A Study of English Translation of Chinese Dish Names from the Perspective of Domestication and Foreignization -- Taking Hunan cuisine an Example 邬香 Wu Xiang

Abstract

As a bright pearl in the storehouse of traditional Chinese culture, catering culture plays a more and more important role in the increasingly frequent cross-cultural communication. However, there are many problems in English translation of Chinese dish names, such as the use of direct and rigid expressions, the neglect of cultural connotations of dishes, and the lack of unified translation standards. Foreignization and domestication can effectively solve the above problems. From the perspective of foreignization and domestication this chapter takes the English translation of Hunan cuisine as an example, and uses different translation strategies for realistic and freehand dishes from the linguistic and cultural levels. Although domestication and foreignization can not remove all the obstacles in English translation of dish names, they can help to accurately express the meanings of dish names, reflect their cultural connotations, and promote cultural exchange and dissemination.

Key words

Chinese dish names; English translation; domestication and foreignization; cross-cultural communication

摘要

饮食文化作为中国传统文化宝库中一颗璀璨的明珠，在如今日益频繁的跨文化交流中的作用愈发重要。但是目前中国菜名英译中出现不少问题，主要包括使用直接生硬的表达方式、忽略菜肴文化内涵、缺乏统一的翻译标准。运用异化和归化翻译策略能有效解决上述问题。本章拟从异化和归化的视角出发，以湘菜英译为例，针对写实型和写意型菜肴从语言和文化层面使用不同的翻译策略。尽管归化和异化不能清除菜名英译中所有的障碍，但其有助于准确表达菜名含义，体现其蕴藏的文化内涵，促进文化交流与传播。

关键词

中国菜名；英译；归化和异化；跨文化交流

1.Introduction

After thousands of years of precipitation and inheritance Chinese food culture has emerged on the international stage and gradually gained the favor and recognition of foreigners. In today's society cultural exchanges between countries and nations are increasingly frequent. As a cross-cultural communication activity, translation refers not only to the process of language conversion, but also to the process of cultural transformation and dissemination. Because Chinese food contains a large number of cultural and artistic features, which reflect the Chinese cultural landscape, we have different translation versions in the process of translating Chinese dishes. This is not conducive to the spread of Chinese culture. It’s known that translation strategies of domestication and foreignization can retain the cultural elements in the original text to the greatest extent. As one of the eight major cuisines in China, Hunan cuisine has its unique characteristics and rich cultural heritage, so it is suitable to adopt domestication and foreignization in English translation. Many domestic scholars focus on specific translation methods and skills in the research on translation of dish names, and rarely consider the translation strategies of foreignization and domestication. However, it is necessary to clarify what kind of translation strategy to adopt before choosing appropriate translation methods and skills, because the implementation of the former is reflected in the application of specific translation skills, while the application of the latter requires certain translation strategies (熊兵, 2014: 84). Therefore, this chapter will discuss the application of translation strategies of domestication and foreignization in the English translation of traditional Chinese dish names based on the corpus of Hunan dishes.

中国饮食文化历经数千年的沉淀和传承后，在国际舞台上崭露头角，逐渐得到外国人的青睐和认可。当今社会世界各国、各民族文化交流日益频繁，翻译作为一种跨文化交际活动，不仅指语言转换的过程，而且是文化转换和传播的过程。归化和异化策略能最大程度保留原文中的文化元素，解决目前中国菜名翻译过程中存在的一些问题。湘菜作为中国八大菜系之一，具有独特的特点和丰富的文化底蕴，适合采用归化和异化英译。国内许多学者对菜名翻译的研究多着眼于具体的翻译方法和技巧，很少从异化和归化的翻译策略高度来考虑。然而首先明确采用怎样的翻译策略，才能继而选用合适的翻译方法和技巧，因为前者的实施体现在特定翻译技巧的运用，同时后者的运用需依据一定的翻译策略（熊兵，2014: 84）。因此，本文将以湘菜菜品名为语料，探讨翻译策略在传统中国菜名英译中的运用。

2.Exiting problems in English translation of Chinese dish names

Chinese food culture is extensive and profound. It has a long history. The importance of English translation of Chinese dish names in cross-cultural communications between China and foreign countries is self-evident. However, there are many problems in the English translation of Chinese dish names, such as the use of direct and rigid expressions, the lack of unified translation standards, and the ignorance of the cultural connotation of dishes. These problems make foreigners and some domestic English learners confused. In the following, I will analyze in detail with examples.

中国饮食文化博大精深，源远流长。中餐翻译在中外文化交流中的重要性不言而喻。然而，目前中国菜名英译存在不少问题，诸如使用直接生硬表达法、缺乏统一翻译标准、忽视菜肴文化内涵等。这些问题不仅引起外国人的困惑，国内英语学习者亦云里雾里。下面笔者将结合实例具体分析。

2.1 The use of direct and rigid expressions

China has a vast territory and abundant resources. The eating habits and cooking methods in different regions of the country are different. Some dishes are named after myths, legends and allusions, while others are complex in cooking methods and various in ingredients. Direct and stiff expressions can‘t express the rich connotations of these dishes, and even make people funny. For example, if "Jiaohua chicken, a whole chicken roasted in caked mud"(叫花鸡) is translated into "beggar's chicken"(叫花子的鸡), it does not reflect the origin and the cooking method of this dish. It is said that in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, a beggar in Changshu（常熟，a city of Jiangsu province） got a chicken by chance. He had no cooking utensils and seasonings. So he had to put the chicken into the mud to simmer and roast it. When the chicken was cooked, it knocked off the mud shell, and the aroma overflowed. It became a delicious dish. Another example is that "木须肉" is translated as "wood mustache meat"（木头胡子肉）. This translation is confusing and does not reflect the main ingredients of this dish. I think that it is appropriate and reasonable to translate it into "stir fried pork with eggs and black fugus".

中国地大物博，全国各地区的饮食习惯与烹饪方法各不相同，其中一些菜肴以神话、传说及典故命名，还有一些佳肴烹饪方法复杂，食材多种多样。直接生硬的表达法不能很好表达这些菜肴的丰富内涵，甚至会让人啼笑皆非。比如，”叫花鸡”(Jiaohua Chicken，a whole chicken roasted in caked mud)若译成”Beggar’s Chicken”则完全没有体现这道菜的由来及做法。相传明末清初时，常熟一个乞丐偶然间得到一只鸡，苦于没有炊具和调料，只能将鸡处理后放入泥土中煨烤，鸡熟后敲掉泥壳，香气四溢，成为一道美味佳肴。又如，“木须肉”被译为”Wood mustache meat”（木头胡子肉），这种译法让人不知所云，更没有体现这道菜的主要原料。笔者认为将其译为”Stir-fried pork with eggs and black fungus”比较恰当合理。

2.2 The lack of unified translation standards

At present there is no uniform international standard for the translation of Chinese dish names, which leads to the emergence of multiple translation versions in the book market and restaurants. It brings inconvenience and trouble to foreigners and seriously affects the spread of Chinese catering culture. For example, there are several different translations of "麻婆豆腐" in China: bean curd with minced pork in hot sauce; Mapo Tofu; tofu made by woman with freckles. The last translation is not very appropriate and easy to cause disgust. Foreigners are familiar with the translation of "Mapo Tofu" and have already accepted it, so it is acceptable not to explain it. The first translation is to make people salivate. It reflects the method and raw materials of this dish. There are also many ways to translate "宫保鸡丁", including "Kung Pao chicken", "fried diced chicken in Sichuan style" or "sautéed chicken cubes with chili and peanuts". So many translation versions will not only make readers confused, but also fail to reflect the characteristics and cultural connotation of Chinese dish names. Therefore, the translation of the unified dish names is one of the problems to be solved in correctly understanding Chinese cooking culture.

目前，国际上没有关于中国菜名翻译的统一的标准，这导致在图书市场和餐厅内出现多个翻译版本，给外国人就餐带来不便与麻烦，严重影响了中国饮食文化的传播。例如，国内“麻婆豆腐”有以下几种不同的翻译：Bean curd with minced pork in hot sauce; Mapo tofu; Tofu made by woman with freckles.笔者认为，最后一种译法不是很贴切，容易引起反感。外国人已熟知并接受”Mapo tofu”的译法，故不解释亦可。第一种译法较为形象，体现了菜肴的做法和原料，让人垂涎欲滴。“宫保鸡丁”五花八门的译法包括”Kung Pao Chicken”, “Fried diced chicken in Sichuan style” 或”Sautéed chicken cubes with chili and peanuts”. 如此多的译名不仅会引起读者思维上的混乱，而且没有很好地体现中国菜名的特点与文化内涵。由此可见，统一菜名的翻译是正确领略中国饮食文化亟待解决的问题之一。

2.3 The neglect of cultural connotations of dishes

The differences between Chinese and Western cultures lead to the differences between Chinese and Western catering cultures, which in the final analysis stems from the different attitudes towards rationality and sensibility. Chinese people have strong perceptual thinking, so they pursue beauty and artistry. Chinese dishes are full of color, fragrance and other cultural connotations. Westerners pay more attention to rationality, truth and science. The names of Western dishes are easy to understand, and the raw materials and nutrients are relatively clear. For example, onion soup in French style(法式洋葱汤) is used in Western food, while "stewed snake and chicken"(龙凤呈祥) in Chinese food is the soup stewed with snake and chicken. Snake is regarded as a small dragon (Jiao 蛟) in China, and there is a folk saying that "pheasant flies on the branch and becomes a phoenix"(野鸡飞上枝头变凤凰). Therefore, the snake is compared to the dragon, and the chicken to the Phoenix, which is used to bless and praise things and others. The main ingredient of "more than every year"(年年有余) is fish. "Yu"(余) in Chinese refers to surplus, which is homophonic with "fish”(鱼), which expresses people's good wishes for a prosperous family and surplus every year. If foreigners do not understand the Chinese culture implied in these dishes, they will find this kind of translation very strange. Therefore, cultural factors must be taken into account in translating Chinese dishes to avoid misunderstanding.

中西文化的差异导致中西饮食文化的不同，而这种差异归根结底源于双方对待理性和感性的不同态度。中国人感性思维较强，故而追求美和艺术性，中餐讲究色香味俱全，通常含有祝福、美好等文化内涵。西方人则更注重理性、真理和科学，西餐菜名通俗易懂，原料和营养成分较为清楚。比如，西餐中的Onion soup in French style(法式洋葱汤),而中餐中的”龙凤呈祥”（Stewed snake and chicken）是用蛇和鸡炖的汤。蛇在中国视为小龙（蛟），且民间有“野鸡飞上枝头变凤凰”的俗语。故把蛇比作龙，鸡比作凤凰，用作对事物和他人的祝福和赞美。”年年有余”（More than every year）的主要食材是鱼，“余”在汉语中指剩余，与“鱼”谐音，表达人们对家业发达、年年有余的美好愿望。如果外国人不了解这些菜隐含的中国文化，则会觉得这种翻译很奇怪。因此，在翻译中国菜名时必须考虑文化因素，避免造成误解。

To a large extent, the above problems are caused by the fact that people pay attention to the intuitive feelings in the process of translation, ignore the cultural connotations of dish names, and use inappropriate translation methods. I will try to solve these problems by adopting translation strategies of domestication and foreignization from the linguistic and cultural levels. Next, I will introduce the two translation strategies and analyzes how to use them to improve the quality of translation in the process of translating Hunan cuisine into English.

以上问题很大程度上是因为人们在翻译过程中注重直观的感受，忽略菜名蕴含的文化底蕴，使用不恰当的翻译方法造成的。笔者试图从语言和文化层面采用归化和异化翻译策略来解决这些问题。接下来将介绍着这两种翻译策略并分析在湘菜英译过程中如何运用它们来提高翻译质量。

3.Translation strategies of domestication and foreignization

3.1 Definitions of domestication and foreignization

Domestication and foreignization are two different translation strategies in the process of translation. These two terms were first put forward by Lawrence Venuti in his book Translator's Invisibility according to the theory of German philosopher Schleiermacher. (王少飞 2006:30) Domestication refers to a translation strategy that localizes the source language, takes the target language or target language readers as the destination, and adopts the expressions that the readers are used to convey the content of the original text. It can help readers better understand the translation and enhance its readability and appreciation. Foreignization in the process of translation considers the linguistic characteristics of foreign cultures, absorbs foreign language expressions. It requires translators to approach the author and adopt the corresponding source language expressions to convey the content of the original text. It means that we should take the source culture as the destination. The purpose of using foreignization is to consider the differences of national cultures, preserve and reflect characteristics of foreign cultures and their language styles, and to retain the exotic sentiment for the target readers.（百度百科）

“归化”和“异化”是翻译过程中两种不同的翻译策略。这两个术语最初是由劳伦斯韦努蒂( Lawrence Venuti) 根据德国哲学家施莱尔马赫( Schleiermarcher) 的理论在他的著作《译者的隐身》中提出的。(王少飞，2006: 30) 归化指把源语本土化，以目标语或译文读者为归宿，采取目标语读者所习惯的表达方式来传达原文的内容的一种翻译策略。归化翻译要求译者向目的语的读者靠拢。归化翻译有助于读者更好地理解译文，增强译文的可读性和欣赏性。异化在翻译上迁就外来文化的语言特点，吸纳外语表达方式，要求译者向作者靠拢，采取相应于作者所使用的源语表达方式，来传达原文的内容，即以源语文化为归宿。使用异化策略的目的在于考虑民族文化的差异性、保存和反映异域民族特征和语言风格特色，为译文读者保留异国情调。（百度百科）

3.2 Two levels of domestication and foreignization

Foreignization and domestication should be investigated from the level of language form and cultural content. (张志中, 2005：46) On the one hand, at the linguistic level, adopting the translation strategy of foreignization is beneficial to enrich the expression of the target language, but only in a few cases the purpose of translation is to show the language form of the source language. Domestication, because of its reader-oriented characteristics, can ensure that the translation is easy to understand, and it is favored by readers. Therefore, at the language level domestication is the mainstay and foreignization is the supplement. On the other hand, on the cultural level foreignization can retain the cultural elements and connotations contained in the source language as much as possible, which helps to spread foreign cultures, and its advantages are greater than domestication. However, it is impossible to completely adopt the foreignization strategy, because there are too large cultural differences in cross-cultural communication, and it is necessary to use domestication to remove communication barriers. Therefore, at the cultural level the principle of foreignization as the mainstay and domestication as the supplement is adopted. In addition, adopting domestication strategies at the language level can clearly express the meaning of the original text, which helps to better reflect the cultural elements expressed by the use of foreignization at the cultural level. In short, when the source language has distinctive national characteristics, the use of a combination of translation strategies of domestication and foreignization can maximize the strengths and avoid weaknesses, and promote cultural transmission.

谈论异化和归化，应从语言形式和文化内容层面考察。（张智中，2005：46）一方面，在语言层面上，采取异化翻译策略有利于丰富目的语的表达方式，但是只有在少数情况下翻译的目的是展现源语的语言形式。而归化由于读者导向性的特点能保证译文通俗易懂，受到广大读者的青睐。故而在语言层面提倡主要采用归化策略，异化策略辅助的原则。另一方面，在文化层面上，异化能尽可能保留源语中蕴藏的文化元素和内涵，有助于传播异国文化，其优势大于归化。但是，完全采用异化策略是不可能的，因为在跨文化交际中存在文化差异过大的情况，需要采用归化来扫除交流障碍。因此，在文化层面上采用异化为主，归化为辅的原则。此外，在语言层面上采取归化策略能清楚的表达原文意思，有助于更好地体现在文化层面采用异化策略所表达的文化元素。总之，当源语具有鲜明的民族特色时，采用归化和异化结合的翻译策略能够扬长避短，促进文化传播。

Theoretically speaking, foreignization and domestication are two opposite translation strategies. However, they are closely related and interact with each other in specific translation practices and applications. When domestication and foreignization are applied in the translation of Chinese dish names, the translator should deal with the relationship between the readers and the author. On the one hand, from the perspective of readers we should try our best to use their habitual expressions and consider their way of thinking and understanding ability to make sure that they can understand the translation. On the other hand, we should pay attention to retaining the essence of Chinese traditional culture contained in Chinese dish names, so as not to blindly please readers without knowing to change. This is the basic requirement of a qualified translator of Chinese dish names.

从理论上看异化和归化这两种翻译策略是对立的，然而在具体的翻译实践和应用中二者有紧密的联系，且相互作用。在中国菜名翻译中应用归化和异化翻译策略时，译者应处理好读者与作者之间的关系。一方面，应从读者的角度出发尽可能用其惯用的表达方式，考虑他们的思维方式和理解能力，以达到他们能明白翻译内容的目的。另一方面，应注意保留中国菜名中所蕴含的中国传统文化精髓，做到既不一味取悦读者，也不不知变通（一成不变），这是一位合格的中国菜名翻译者的基本素养。

4. Application of domestication and foreignization in English translation of Hunan cuisine

4.1 Composition and nomenclature of Hunan cuisine

湘菜的构成及命名方法

As one of the eight major cuisines in China, Hunan cuisine has the unique characteristics of color, flavor and taste of Chinese dishes, and its naming also shows different styles. Hunan cuisine can be generally divided into realistic dishes and freehand dishes, which describe their mood. The first type of dishes directly reflects the cooking elements. The second one usually uses rhetorical skills to endow dishes with certain cultural connotations according to their own composition. If foreigners don't understand Chinese culture, they don't know the specific methods and raw materials of this kind of dishes, so it is difficult to understand their meanings.

湘菜作为中国八大菜系之一，具有中国菜肴独有的色香味俱全的特点，其命名亦显示不同的风格。湘菜一般可分为写实型菜肴和写意型菜肴，写实型菜肴直接体现烹饪要素。写意型佳肴则通常使用修辞手法，根据其本身的组成赋予菜肴一定的文化内涵。如果外国人不了解中国的文化，单从字面翻译他们不知道这类菜肴具体做法和原料，难以理解其具体含义。

4.1.1 Realistic dishes

Realistic dishes are often named according to the combination of cooking elements. The cooking elements of Hunan cuisine mainly include raw materials(原料), seasonings(调料), knife techniques(刀法), taste(口味) and cooking methods(烹饪方法). Common main ingredients embody fish, meat, chicken, etc.; seasonings involve star anise(八角), cinnamon(桂皮), green onion(葱), ginger(姜), garlic(蒜); knife techniques are various, such as slicing(切片), shredding(切丝), cutting into wicker shapes(切柳) ; the taste is famous for its sour and spicy(酸辣), fresh and tender(鲜嫩), crisp and fragrant(酥脆) taste; the cooking methods are mainly sauted(爆), simmered(煨), stewed(炖), fried(炒), braised(烩) and steamed(蒸). The common combination methods include following three types: cooking materials + methods + knife method, such as sauted shredded pork with green pepper(青椒肉丝); seasoning + raw materials, such as bullfrog with ginger sauce and pepper(姜辣牛蛙), hot and sour radish strips(酸辣萝卜条); taste + cooking method + raw materials, such as smoked fish in five flavors(五香熏鱼).

写实型菜一般根据其菜肴烹饪要素的组合命名，湘菜的烹饪要素主要包括原料、调料、刀法、口味和烹饪方法。常见的主料包括鱼、肉、鸡等；调料有八角、桂皮、葱、姜、蒜；种类繁多的刀法如，切片、切丝、切柳等；口味以酸辣、鲜嫩、酥脆、香熏著称；烹饪方法以爆、煨、炖、炒、烩、蒸为主。常见的组合方式包括以下三种：烹饪原料+方法+刀法，如青椒肉丝（Sauteed Shredded Pork with Green Pepper）；调料+原料，如姜辣牛蛙（Bullfrog with ginger sauce and pepper ）、酸辣萝卜条（Hot and sour radish strips）；口味+烹饪方法+原料，如五香熏鱼（Smoked fish in five flavors）。

4.1.2 Freehand dishes

There are two types of freehand dishes. The first one is named according to the raw materials, colors, shapes or origin places of the dishes, which not only contains rich historical and cultural backgrounds and local flavors, but also expresses good wishes for good luck and has Chinese characteristics. These dishes are often named after allusions, legends or use metaphors, such as steamed glutinous rice ball (with meat / sugar in it)(姊妹团子). The second one refers to the names of people and place names related to dishes, which has distinctive local characteristics, such as Mao's braised pork(毛氏红烧肉), braised chestnut with green cabbage(板栗烧菜心), Changde rice noodles(常德米粉), and Lixian County stewed pork gut(澧县肠子).

写意型菜包括两种类型。第一种根据菜肴的原料、色形或产地取名，使其不仅蕴含丰富的历史文化背景和地方风味，也表达了吉祥美好的祝愿，更具有中国特色。这些菜常以典故、传说命名或使用隐喻等修辞手法，如姊妹团子（Steamed Glutinous Rice Ball (with meat/sugar in it)）。第二种引用与菜肴相关的人名、地名命名，具有鲜明的地方特色，如毛氏红烧肉（Mao's braised pork）、板栗烧菜心（Braised chestnut with green cabbage）、常德米粉(Changde rice noodles)，澧县肠子(Lixian county stewed pork gut)。

4.2 At the language level domestication is the mainstay and domestication is the supplement

Domestication at the language level means that the English translation of Hunan dishes should use common and appropriate expressions in English to convey the meaning of Chinese dish names at different levels of linguistics such as vocabulary, semantics, and grammar, so as to ensure the acceptability of English translation of dish names for foreigners.

语言层面的归化指湘菜的英译要在词汇、语义、语法等语言学的不同层面上，使用英语中常见、贴切的表达方式传达中国菜名的含义，以确保英译菜名在外国人中的接受度。

4.2.1 Domestication at lexical level

“童子鸡”can be translated as “Tender chicken”(嫩滑的鸡肉), but it cannot be translated as “chicken without sexual life”(没有性生活的鸡). According to this literal translation, “童子鸡” refers to chickens that have not mate. However, this dish originally emphasized that the chicken is tender and tastes very good, not the age of the chicken. Therefore, when translating “童子鸡”, the strategy of domestication is used at the lexical level. The word “Tender” is used to express the concept of “童子”, which means that the chicken is not mature enough. It expresses the essence of this dish vividly and avoids misunderstanding. This method is also applicable to the English translation of “鱼香肉丝”. “Shredded pork with garlic sauce or Fish-flavored shredded pork in hot sauce”(蒜蓉猪肉丝或鱼香肉丝) refers to shredded pork mixed with minced garlic. The “fish fragrance”(鱼香) of this dish does not refer to the fragrance of fish meat, but a complex flavor composed of various seasonings such as pickled pepper, sugar and vinegar. The above-mentioned translation not only retains the original meaning of Chinese, but also arouses foreigners' associations with the smell of fish.

“童子鸡”可译为Tender chicken(嫩滑的鸡肉)，但不能译成“chicken without sexual life”。按照这种字面翻译，“童子鸡”指的是没有交配的小鸡。然而，这道菜原本强调的是鸡肉很嫩，口感十分好，而非鸡的年龄。因此翻译“童子鸡”时在词汇层面使用归化策略，用tender表示“童子”这个概念，指鸡尚未发育成熟，可传神地表达这道菜的本质，避免误解。这种方法同样适用于“鱼香肉丝”的英译。“鱼香肉丝”（Shredded pork with garlic sauce or Fish-flavored shredded pork in hot sauce）指混合着蒜末的肉丝。这道菜的“鱼香”并非指鱼肉的香味，而是一种用泡椒、糖、醋等多种调料组成的复合味道。上述译法即保留了中文的原意，又能引起外国人对鱼香味的联想。

In addition, pinyin can be used in English translation of dishes with Chinese characteristics which have been included in major foreign English dictionaries, such as wonton(馄饨), tofu(豆腐), jiaozi(饺子) and Shaomai(烧卖). These dishes are traditional Chinese food which has been widely accepted by foreigners. Moreover, the use of pinyin can promote Chinese and Chinese cooking culture.

此外，具有中国特色且被国外主要英文字典收录的，使用汉语方言拼音或音译拼写的菜名，英译时可使用拼音，如“馄饨”（Wonton）、“豆腐”（Tofu）、“饺子”（Jiaozi）、“烧卖”(Shaomai)等。这些菜肴都是已被外国人普遍接受的中国传统食品，使用拼音能推广汉语和中国饮食文化。

4.2.2 Domestication at semantic level

Domestication at semantic level is conducive to convey the meaning of dish names simply and clearly. For example, “一卵孵双凤” can be translated as “two phoenix were hatched from an egg (two chickens, winter bamboo shoots and mushrooms steamed in watermelon)”. From the above translation you can clearly understand the main ingredients and cooking methods of this dish, so as not to be confused by its name. In another example, “金鱼戏莲” is made with squid as the main ingredient. The squid rolls resemble goldfish, playing among the lotus clusters composed of eggs, shrimps and green beans. The name of the dish comes from it. If this dish is directly translated as “goldfish plays with lotus” with the use of foreignization, it is difficult for foreigners to figure out what it means. Therefore, “Oil-fried squid files and steamed shrimp meat, albumen and lima bean to mean”(金鱼戏莲) vividly expresses the essence of this dish, and a vivid and interesting picture can be constructed in the reader's mind through the representation of the image of “floating lotus”(浮莲).Similar examples include “stewed assorted meats/hotchpotch” (全家福), “hotpot of snakeheaded fish slices as butterflies out of the soup” (蝴蝶飘海) and “steamed whole hen with litchi, longan, jujube, lotus and medlar”(五元神仙鸡).

语义上的归化有利于简单明了地传达菜名的含义。例如，“一卵孵双凤”可译为Two phoenix were hatched from an egg(two chickens, winter bamboo shoots and mushrooms steamed in watermelon).从上述翻译可以十分清楚地了解这道菜的主要食材和制作方法，从而不会再被菜名弄得一头雾水。又如，“金鱼戏莲”以鱿鱼为主料制作而成，鱿鱼卷似金鱼，嬉戏于由鸡蛋、虾仁和青豆组成的群莲中，菜名由此而来。如果采用异化策略直接译为Goldfish plays with lotus,外国人很难弄明白这指的是什么。故用Oil-fried squid files and steamed shrimp meat, albumen and lima bean表示“金鱼戏莲”,既十分形象地表达了这道菜的本质，又通过“浮莲”意象的再现，能在读者脑海里构建一幅生动有趣的画面。类似的例子还包括“全家福”（Stewed assorted meats/hotchpotch）、“五元神仙鸡”（Steamed whole hen with litchi, longan, jujube, lotus and medlar）、“蝴蝶飘海”（Hotpot of snakeheaded fish slices as butterflies out of the soup）。

4.2.3 Domestication at grammatical level

The domestication of Hunan cuisine at the grammatical level is mainly reflected in the use of prepositions and verb past participles in English translation of dish names. There are various cooking methods for Hunan cuisine, including simmer, stew, steam, fry, smoke, and the past participle is usually used in the translation. Such as “Dongting spicy salted duck” (洞庭酱板鸭), “Dongting barbecued mandarin fish”(网油叉烧洞庭桂鱼), and “fried winter bamboo shoots”(油辣冬笋尖).Dishes with main ingredients and supplemented by ingredients, seasonings, and soups are generally translated by prepositions, such as “preserved egg with hot pepper”(尖椒皮蛋),“fragments of garlic bolt without using knife”(手撕蒜苗), “Yongzhou fried duck pieces together with its blood and balsam pear” (永州血鸭), and “braised pig knuckle in brown sauce” (走油猪腿).

湘菜在语法层面的归化主要体现在英译菜名时介词和动词过去分词的使用方面。湘菜多种多样的烹调方法，包括煨simmer、炖stew、蒸steam、炒fry、熏smoke，在译文中通常用过去分词。如“洞庭酱板鸭”（Dongting spicy salted duck ）、“网油叉烧洞庭桂鱼”（Dongting barbecued mandarin fish）、“油辣冬笋尖”（Fried winter bamboo shoots）。而以主料为主，配料、调料、汤汁为辅的菜肴一般会使用介词翻译，如“尖椒皮蛋”（Preserved Egg with Hot Pepper）、“手撕蒜苗”（Fragments of garlic bolt without using knife）、“永州血鸭”（Yongzhou fried duck pieces together with its blood and balsam pear）、“走油猪蹄”（Braised pig knuckle in brown sauce）。

4.3 At the cultural level foreignization is the mainstay and domestication is the supplement.

4.3.1 Dishes named after allusions and legends

以典故、传说命名的菜肴

“姊妹团子” is a local snack in Hunan Province. It is made by grinding the finest glutinous rice into a fine powder, and the inset is a meat filling made of raw materials such as fresh meat, mushrooms, monosodium glutamate, and sesame oil. The shape is a long cone with a pointed top and a flat bottom. After being steamed, it looks like a small white pagoda. The origin of this dish is as follows: In the early 1920s, the young and beautiful Jiang sisters set up a stall selling glutinous rice dumplings in the polder of the Fire Palace in Changsha. The dumplings they made were delicious and beautiful, and people were full of praise for it. (百度百科) The translation “Steamed glutinous rice ball (with meat/sugar in it)” points out that the main raw material of this dish is rice ball, the auxiliary materials are meat and sugar, and the cooking method is steam, which makes it clear at a glance.

“姊妹团子”是湖南省地方特色小吃。其制作时用上等糯米磨成细粉，内陷是由鲜肉、香菇、味精、芝麻油等原料构成的肉馅。外形是尖顶平底长型锥体，蒸熟后像一座白色的小宝塔。这道菜肴的由来如下：本世纪20年代初在长沙火宫殿的圩场上年轻漂亮的姜氏姐妹摆了一个卖团子的摊子，她们制作的团子既好吃又好看，人们对此赞不绝口。译文“Steamed glutinous rice ball (with meat/sugar in it)”指出此菜主要原料是rice ball、辅料为meat和sugar,烹饪方法为steam,让人一目了然。

“湘西土匪鸭”is a dish named after an allusion. It is said that a woman surnamed Zhang(张氏) opened a restaurant in Xiangxi (湘西，the west of Hunan province), but her business was not very good due to the large area and sparse population. To make matters worse, her ducks raised in the house are fierce and domineering, ruining the crops every day, and not laying eggs properly, causing Zhang to hold the bamboo poles and rush and scold them every day: “You damn ducks, you are like bandits!” She was so angry with these ducks to kill all of them. Because these wild ducks are delicious and Zhang's cooking skills are good, the ducks she burns are soft and tender, and they are delicious, attracting people to smell the fragrance and attracting a large number of guests. Someone asked what this dish was called. Because of the ducks Zhang was extremely angry at that time, and she casually replied: “What kind of dish? Wild ducks!” Since then this dish has become famous. (百度百科) If we use the translation strategy of domestication to translate this dish as “Brigand in Xiangxi ducks”, it is incredible. Translating “湘西土匪鸭” into “Xiangxi wild ducks” not only allows guests to understand the special ingredients of the dish, but it embodies the legendary story of Xiangxi.

“湘西土匪鸭”是以典故命名的菜肴。传说湘西以前一个姓张的妇人开了一家餐馆，由于地广人稀，生意不太好。更糟糕的是，家中饲养的鸭子凶悍霸道，天天糟蹋庄稼，不好好下蛋，害得张氏天天拿着竹竿又赶又骂:“你们这些该死的鸭子，简直像土匪!。她一气之下把这些鸭子全杀了。由于这些爱撒野的鸭子肉质鲜美，且张氏厨艺很好，她烧的鸭子酥软嫩滑，鲜香绝伦，引得食客闻香而至,吸引大量的客人。有人问这叫什么菜，张氏气极，随口答：“什么菜/土匪鸭!”从此这道菜名声大震。(百度百科)若使用归化的翻译策略将这道菜译为“Brigand in Xiangxi ducks”让人匪夷所思。把“湘西土匪鸭”译成“Xiangxi wild duck”不仅能让客人了解菜的特殊食材，而且体现了湘西这个传奇的故事。

4.3.2 Dish names with place names and people's names

带地名和人名的菜名

“攸县香干”is a famous characteristic traditional soy product in Hunan Province, which originated in Youxian County, Hunan Province(湖南省攸县). This dish tastes smooth and tender, full of toughness, pure taste, thin but not greasy. Tofu is easy to taste and has an aftertaste after eating. It is a home-cooked dish suitable for all ages. The translation "Dried tofu, Youxian style" uses the foreignization translation strategy to point out from the cultural level that the raw material of the dishes is dried tofu, and it reflects the local characteristics of Youxian County.

“攸县香干”是湖南省著名的特色传统豆制品，起源于湖南省攸县境内。这道菜口感滑嫩、韧性足、口味纯、细而不腻，有点劲道。豆腐很容易入味，吃完后有回味，是一道老少适宜的家常菜。译文“Dried tofu ，Youxian style”采用异化的翻译策略从文化层面指出了菜的原料是烘干的豆腐，而且体现攸县的地方特色。

“玉麟香腰”was created by the chef of Peng Yulin(彭玉麟), a famous official in Hengyang(衡阳,a city of Hunan province) in the Qing Dynasty, and the name of the dish came from this. The main ingredient is pork loin. There are a variety of snacks in a bowl. The dishes are divided into seven layers, stacked one after another, shaped like a pagoda(宝塔), also known as “pagoda fragrant waist”(宝塔香腰). If this dish is translated as "sweet pig kidney", it is difficult to explain its cultural heritage, and it does not show the beauty of this dish's visual “step by step”(步步高升) like a pagoda. “玉麟香腰”can be translated into English as “Yulin’s best homely dish”. According to legend, when Peng Yulin returned home to banquet his fellow villagers, he used “玉麟香腰” as the first dish. “Peng Yulin's best family banquet dishes”(彭玉麟最好的家宴菜) can ingeniously explain the origin of this dish, and undoubtedly explain why this dish is also called “touwan”(头碗，the first dish), and the English translation of the name of the dish implies “top”(顶级，最好). It seems to mean “to reach the highest level”(登塔至级). Translation of “Yulin’s best homely dish” not only conforms to the psychological world of diners, but also fully considers the audience’s cognitive needs and aesthetic expectations. （张艳萍，张伟平，2016：121）

“玉麟香腰”是清代衡阳名官彭玉麟家厨创作而成，菜名由此而来。其主要食材是猪腰，一个碗里有多种小吃，菜分七层，层层堆砌，形状象宝塔，又名“宝塔香腰”。若将此菜译为“Sweet pig kidney”则很难解释它的文化底蕴，亦没有呈现这道菜视觉上“步步高升”如宝塔的美感。，“玉麟香腰”可以英译成 Yulin’s Best Homely Dish，因相传彭玉麟回乡宴请父老乡亲时，为表示丰盛，第一道菜就用的是“玉麟香腰”。“彭玉麟最好的家宴菜”能巧妙地解释了此菜的起源，无疑说明了此菜又称为“头碗”的缘由，且菜名英译中“最好”有蕴含“顶级”，似“登塔至级”之意：菜英译名 Yulin’s Best Homely Dish 不仅顺应了食客的心理世界，也充分考虑到受众的认知需要与审美期待。（张艳萍，张伟平，2016：121） 4.4 Limitations of domestication and foreignization in English translation of Hunan cuisine

Translation strategies that adopt the combination of domestication and foreignization can ensure the clarity of English translation of Hunan cuisine and retain its cultural connotation, but there are still shortcomings, which are mainly reflected in the following three aspects. Firstly, foreignization requires translators to move closer to readers and try their best to use their familiar and accustomed expressions, but sometimes it is difficult to find corresponding words in the target language, especially when we translate the culturally loaded words. For example, the dishes which represent happiness and lucky in Chinese include “四喜丸子”, “百鸟朝凤”, and “全家福”. When we translate these dishes from Chinese into English, we don't know what words should be used to convey auspicious and beautiful meanings on the basis of accurately expressing the meaning of them. Secondly, due to the limitation of menu capacity, the meaning of Chinese dishes named after allusions, legends, and myths can’t be fully expressed. If it is literally translated or transliterated, the guests may be very confused. The choice of transliteration and annotation is too much content, which violates the principle of concise menus. For example, if we translate“佛跳墙” into “Fotiaoqiang” or “Buddha jumping the wall”, it does not reflect the essence of this dish. “Fotiaoqiang-steamed abalone with shark’s fin and fish maw in broth” is more appropriate, but not concise enough. Thirdly, due to the variety of cooking methods and seasonings in China, when translating Hunan cuisine into English the use of domestication is beneficial to people who understand Chinese food culture, but for most foreigners who do not know or are not familiar with these cooking methods and seasonings this type of translation will increase the difficulty of understanding. For example,“干锅烧明虾” and “红烧肉” both have the word “burn”(烧), but the translations are completely different. They should be translated as follows: “Fried prawns with pepper sauce” and “braised pork with brown sauce”. The cooking method of the first dish is “fried”(煎), and the second dish is “stewed”（炖）.（张扬，2016：48）

采用归化和异化结合的翻译策略能最大限度地保证湘菜译文清晰明了，保留其蕴含的文化内涵，但仍有不足，主要体现在以下三个方面。第一，异化要求译者向读者靠拢，尽可能用他们熟悉和习惯的表达方式，但有时候很难在目的语中找到对应的词语，尤其是文化负载词的翻译。比如汉语中表示吉祥的菜包括“四喜丸子”、“百鸟朝凤”、“全家福”，翻译时在准确表达菜名含义的基础上不知道该用什么词来传达吉祥美好的意思。第二，由于菜单容量的限制，以典故、传说、神话等命名的中国菜肴的含义不能完全表达。如果直译或者音译，客人可能会十分困惑。选择音译加注解的方式则内容太多，违背菜单简洁的原则。例如，“佛跳墙”如果译成“Fotiaoqiang”or “Buddha jumping the wall”未体现这道菜的本质。“Fotiaoqiang-steamed abalone with shark’s fin and fish maw in broth”比较贴切，但不够精简。第三，由于中国的烹饪方法和调料多种多样，英译时使用归化的翻译策略对于了解中国饮食文化的人来说是有利的，但是对于大部分不知道或者不熟悉这些烹饪方法和调料的外国人来说，这类的译文会增加他们的理解难度。比如， “干锅烧明虾”与“红烧肉”都有“烧”字，但是译法却是完全相同的，应该分别翻译如下：“Fried Prawns with Pepper Sauce”与“Braised Pork with Brown Sauce”。第一道菜的烹饪方法是“煎”，第二道菜则是“炖”。（张扬，2016：48）

5. Conclusion

Although foreignization and domestication are theoretically opposite, they are complementary and indispensable in the process of English translation of Chinese dish names. Taking different translation strategies from the linguistic and cultural levels can not only be faithful to the original, but also embody the rich cultural connotations and Chinese elements contained in the dish names. Therefore, the English translation of Chinese dish names is an indispensable part of cross-cultural communication and an important link in spreading Chinese traditional culture. I hope this chapter can provide some valuable reference for future research on the English translation of Chinese dish names.

尽管异化与归化在理论上是对立的，但在中国菜名英译过程中二者的作用是相辅相成，缺一不可的。针对写实型和写意型的菜肴从语言和文化层面采取不同的翻译策略不仅能够尽可能地忠于原文，还可以体现菜名中蕴含的丰富文化内涵和中国元素。由此可见，中国菜名的英译是跨文化交际中不可或缺的一部分，是传播中国传统文化的重要环节。希望本文能为未来中国菜名英译研究提供一些有价值的参考。

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