Paratextual Elements And International Publicity Translation

This report records the author’s translation process of three tasks from a translationcompany. The translated texts were published on Beijing Travel, a magazine sponsored bythe Information Office of Beijing Municipality and published by Beijing This MonthPublications. The author introduces the project through task description, processdescription, difficulties in translation process and case analysis. In the final part, asummary and conclusion is provided. In the task description part, the author gives a briefintroduction to the development of Beijing’s publications for publicizing Beijing and Chinain the world, the general information about Beijing This Month Publications as well as themagazine Beijing Travel. Moreover, the author also introduces the contents of the articlesand their textual characteristics. The process description part deals with the time scheduleand translating tools the author adopted. The third part, about the difficulties in translationand cases analysis, is the core part of the report. The author, based on the concept ofparatexts put forward by French literary theorist Gérard Genette and its adaptation into thetranslation fields by other experts such as Mona Baker and Zhang Meifang, analyses sixparatextual elements that play vital roles in the translation process, and further elaborateswith typical examples how the author copes with the influences through the employment ofsuch translation strategies as addition, deletion, adaptation, rewriting and so on. The sixparatextual elements are translation company’s requirements, modes of thinking, targetreaders’ reading interests and communicative needs, beliefs and values as well as the timelimit. At last, the author concludes the shortcomings in the translating processes and puts forward several objects and possible directions for further study.