Translating Chinese Language And Cultural Expressions

In today’s globalized world,the demand for translation services is on the rise.People are becoming more interested in different cultures which makes translation a necessity for global communication.Translators have always struggled between their sincerity with accuracy and style of the source text and making changes to improve their translation’s readability.But as we are overwhelmed with losing characteristics and style of the original text,it is easy to end up overusing literal translation techniques which affect the quality of the translated text.This paper is based on a case study of Chinese-English translation of Huang Danian: The Life of a Geophysicist which is a biography about a well-known Chinese scientist who specialized in deep earth exploration research.In this paper,the author analyzes the difficulties faced when translating Chinese culture-specific expressions,redundancy,repetition and vagueness in Chinese writing style,in addition to cohesion and coherence of the text that may be lost in translation.The author also demonstrates the importance of understanding the purpose behind producing the translated text which greatly influences standards of translation.As the text is meant for non-Chinese readers,it is important that the translator produces a readable translation that will sound natural to the target audience.Translation strategies and techniques introduced in this paper are mainly based on achieving readability through meaning-based translation,avoiding redundancy and repetition through simplifying and paraphrasing,and clarifying the train of thoughts and transition between paragraphs of the text to keep it coherent.The analysis and methods introduced in this study are meant to help English translators overcome difficulties in translating Chinese culture-specific expressions while producing a clear,coherent and readable text.