A Study Of English Translation About Terms Of Chinese Calligraphic Strokes

Chinese calligraphy,with its rich cultural connotation and unique form of expression,has consistently occupied an important position among the Chinese visual artistic forms.With the increasing intercultural communication in recent years,Chinese calligraphy has attracted more and more international attention.In the wake of "going-out" policy of Chinese culture,Chinese classics and Chinese arts represented by Chinese calligraphy are widely introduced to the world.All kinds of calligraphy exhibitions and international calligraphy conferences have been held both at home and abroad,and the number of publications in English about Chinese calligraphy increased.Confucius Institutes established around the world in which Chinese characters and Chinese calligraphy as the art of writing Chinese characters helped to a great extent the dissemination of Chinese calligraphy in the world.Many universities opened the course of Chinese calligraphy tailored to the international students for the purpose of satisfying their curiosity about Chinese calligraphy.Many teaching materials on Chinese calligraphy at home have published their English versions in succession.Nevertheless,due to its unique artistic form and profound Chinese culture embodied,there are still some problems to be solved in the translation of calligraphy-related texts.Chinese Calligraphy is the art about character writing and Chinese characters consist of strokes.Therefore,the beginners of Chinese calligraphy usually begin with the practice of different strokes which are covered in all teaching materials about Chinese calligraphy.The current problems with the translation of stroke terms include inconsistent terms,inappropriate use of words,omission and so on.Three English teaching materials on Chinese calligraphy published both at home and abroad are selected as the study cases of this thesis,namely,Jiang Yi’s Chinese Calligraphy:An Introduction to Its Aesthetic and Technique,Li Wendan’s Chinese Writing and Calligraphy,and Song Youlan’s Chinese Calligraphy(Elementary One).Cultural interpretation of the original text,meaning interpretation from cultural perspective,means of representation and some other perspectives from cultural translation theory proposed by Liu Miqing are adopted to analyze the methods used and the factors that should be taken into consideration when translating Chinese calligraphic terms in English teaching materials.Suggested translations of twenty-four stroke terms are listed.The thesis reaches the conclusion:firstly,three factors need to be taken into consideration in translating stroke terms in Chinese calligraphy,namely,culture,language and means of representation;secondly,transliteration,illustration by means of pictures,mimesis,and explanation are the effective ways that can be adopted in translating the calligraphic stroke terms,and if possible,the combination of a few methods is needed to accurately transfer the literal and cultural meanings of the terms.The overall translation purpose is to let the foreign learners of Chinese calligraphy with little knowledge of Chinese language and Chinese culture establish some knowledge about Chinese calligraphy and pave the way for their further learning of Chinese calligraphy.