Meme Equivalence In Translating Chinese Classics

Published in 1949 by Liang Shuming,a renowned expert in Chinese cultural studies,The Essentials of Chinese Culture is regarded by many as a classic work that compares Chinese culture with Western culture.Liang was urged to further think about and understand Chinese culture by the turbulent Chinese society since the late Qing dynasty.In the book,he elaborated on many aspects of Chinese culture,including China’s patriarchal system,family culture,career division,human rights and freedom,etc.As a part of the Projects of Translating Chinese Academic Works,the translation of The Essentials of Chinese Culture undoubtedly opens a door for Chinese and foreign readers to understand Chinese culture at a time when Western culture is "prevailing" and the "cultural deficit" between China and the West is becoming increasingly prominent.However,due to the unique language and text features of such works,the original memes(Source Text Memeplex,STM) may have recombination or mutation after the translator decode and become the intermediate host of STM.From the perspective of memetics,translation is actually cross-cultural transmission of the original work or culture.Throughout the entire translation process,there are several ways that allow memes to be successfully passed on.Genotype transmission or phenotype transmission actually depends on the translator’s choice of retaining the original form and expression of the source text or being more reader-oriented.On the one hand,the translation of cultural classics requires the translator to retain the linguistic features and connotations of the original text as much as possible.On the other hand,it is also hoped that the cultural factors contained in the original works can spread in the target context.Therefore,in the translation process of such books,the equivalence of STM and TTM(Target Text Memeplex) is a point that needs to be taken good care of.High-quality translation can minimize the loss of STM and at the same time maximize the equivalence between STM and TTM,and thus contributes to cross-cultural transmission of the original work.Chapter Ⅻ of The Essentials of Chinese Culture is selected as the source text and translated by the writer.In this report,the writer aims to find out solutions or appropriate translation strategies for the problems occurring in the translation process of The Essentials of Chinese Culture from the perspective of translation memetics.The criteria of translation,the limitations of the strategy of domestication and foreignization,as well as the feasibility of reaching equivalence between STM and TTM in the translation of such cultural-related works,are expounded here in this report.The writer tries to achieve meme equivalence through syntactic,semantic and pragmatic strategies in the translation of The Essentials of Chinese Culture and finally points out that the translation strategy of cultural classics is not only the choice of domestication or foreignization,but should be the result of organic selection based on text features.It is typically dogmatic to mechanically apply certain kind of translation strategy regardless of the characteristics of the text.In order to achieve the best communication effect of the original information,the selected translation strategy should consider the preservation of the original cultural information and the acceptance of the target reader,and thus realize the best transmission effect of the STM into the TTM and contributes to cultural exchanges between China and the West.