Report On The Translation Of An Overview Of Chinese Culture(Excerpts)

Nowadays, with the acceleration of globalization around the world, international cultural communication becomes increasingly important. During the process of globalization, in terms of making China open up to the outside and letting the world know more about China, translation plays a significant role, and the translation of Chinese culture is of particular importance. This translation project is devoted to the study of the cultural translation. As part of the whole translation project, the source text is excerpted from the Chinese book An Overview of Chinese Culture. The author of this book, Cheng Yuzhen, gives a detailed introduction to traditional Chinese culture, thus making a great contribution to extending and carrying forward the splendid Chinese culture. From this book a large number of culture-loaded terms and expressions can be found. Culture-loaded terms, which contain rich cultural connotations, are the most difficult points in cultural translation. Therefore, the translator chose several excerpts of An Overview of Chinese Culture as the original text, the translation of which may have some special academic and cultural significance.The guiding theory of this translation project, the Skopos theory, put forward by the German linguist Hans J. Vermeer, is a combination of translation theory with translation practice. Different from traditional translation theories, Skopos theory puts emphasis on the translator’s subjective initiative, regarding translation as a purposeful behavior. It holds that the translation purpose is a top-ranking factor in the translating process, which determines the translation strategy and method used by the translator.Under the guidance of Skopos theory, this translation report focuses on the translation strategies of the culture-loaded terms with Chinese characteristics. It is divided into four parts. The first part is the introduction, which includes the introduction to the source text, the background, purpose and significance of the translation project, as well as the structure of the report. The second part mainly elaborates the guiding theory of this report-the Skopos theory, and three translation strategies-foreignization, domestication and the combination of these two. Part three focuses on the translation strategies of the culture-loaded terms, involving the definition and classification of culture-loaded terms and specific application of the translation strategies for different types of culture-loaded terms. The last part draws a conclusion of the translation project:for the culture-loaded terms and expressions in this translation project, foreignization was employed as the main translation strategy and domestication as a subsidiary means.