A Report On C-E Translation Of Chapter Eight Of China Discourses In American Orientalism-Reading Pearl S.buck’s Sino-American Transnational Writings

The source text is excerpted from a book,China Discourses in American Orientalism—Reading Pearl S.Buck’s Sino-American Transnational Writings(henceforth referred to as China Discourses),written by the Chinese scholar Zhu Hua.As a comprehensive and systematic study of Pearl S.Buck currently available,China Discourses informs Chinese readers about Chinese and American literary and cultural heritage while the target text(TT)serves as a cultural interaction between the source text(ST)sender and international professors in the field of American literature and Pearl Buck studies,which is valuable for both China and the West.The translator selected Chapter 8 of Chinese Discourses as the translation project.The ST is an academically rigorous text that is characterized by proper nouns,cultural expressions,and multiple compound sentences.Given the above characteristics,the translator chose Christiane Nord’s text-type translation theory as the overall guiding theory.Nord summarized two types of translation: documentary translation and instrumental translation.A documentary translation was depicted as creating a document of source culture communicative interaction while an instrumental translation was depicted as an instrument performing the same range of functions as the ST.Based on an ST analysis,the translator adopted an instrumental translation for proper noun translation.For cultural phrases and idioms translation,the translator adopted literal translation,transliteration,and annotation methods.To translate multiple compound sentences in Chinese,the translator adopted methods such as division,combination,shifting,and thematization to adapt to the target culture’s convention of researchoriented texts.Through this translation practice,the translator hopes to provide a certain reference for the translation of research-oriented texts.