A Report On The Chinese-English Translation Of Cultural Interaction And Integration Between Ancient Ba-Shu And South Asia(Excerpts) Under The Guidance Of Adaptation Theory

The source text of this translation report is selected from Cultural Interaction and Integration Between Ancient Ba-Shu and South Asia written by Professor Tang Hong.The book analyses the cultural interaction and integration between ancient Ba-Shu and South Asia in three aspects covering ten chapters.Chapter One to Chapter Six mainly discuss material culture;Chapter Seven and Chapter Eight involve religious culture;Chapter Nine and Chapter Ten glance at language and arts.The translator is in charge of the translating from Page 27 to Page 42 for this translation project.The assigned text covers Chapter One and Chapter Two,which discuss material culture on both the origin of “Cina” in Sanskrit and goods for foreign trade in ancient Shu in historical books.Professor Tang Hong hopes to make a new conclusion based on previous researches on the cultural exchanges between ancient Ba-Shu and South Asia.The source text is informative and content-focused.Since there is much information with specific cultural backgrounds,it is a big challenge for the translator to make it easy for target readers to understand.After learning various translation theories and meanwhile combining with difficulties in this translation practice,the translator finally applies the Adaptation Theory proposed by Jef Verschueren as the guidance of this translation project.According to Adaptation Theory,Verschueren explains the use of language from four aspects,namely,contextual correlates of adaptability,structural objects of adaptability,dynamics of adaptability,and salience of the adaptability process.Under the guidance of the Adaptation Theory,the translator employs specific translation methods to deal with difficulties in the translation process,trying to adapt to specific context and structure to achieve dynamics of adaptability.By doing this translation project,the translator not only learns cultural exchanges between ancient Ba-Shu and South Asia,but also improves her translation skills.This translation project is meaningful because more people will learn the close connection between ancient Ba-Shu or even China and South Asia by the access of the target text.Besides,the fact that China has been communicating with South Asia since ancient times is also considered as the historical origin of the Belt and Road Initiative.Hopefully,this report will inspire translation learners and translators to jointly promote the “going abroad” of Chinese culture and cultural exchanges.