| Throughout the history of human communication, Chinese and Occidentalcultural exchange has become one of the major themes of our times. Especially alongwith the economic globalization, cultural diversity and political multi-polarity, theexchange between Occidental and Oriental culture is the only way for thedevelopment of worldwide countries and regions. While business interaction andcommunication between different cultures are increasingly frequent and close, thecross-cultural communication has affected everyone’s life more or less. Huntingtonclearly states that the Islamic civilization and the Confucian civilization poses thegreatest threat to Occidental civilization. However, Ancient Chinese philosophy havealways been emphasizing: Harmony is the most valuable, and Open mind is powerful.Conflict and dialogue constitute the two dimensions of intercultural communicationresearch: They are in the transformation of continuous evolution and developmentrather than binary oppositions. International economic integration and tradeexchanges involving different countries, different people, different cultures, differentvalues and different modes of thinking, inevitably bring about the influence andreference each other in the aspects of cultural practice, ways of thinking, universalvalues, religion and many others. Wittgenstein points out that:“The commonbehaviors of mankind is the reference system with which we understand and explaindifferent languages”(Tu Jiliang,2003:144). Despite using different languages, andliving in different cultures, people finally are able to understand each other and reacha consensus through language translation because a variety of life forms have more orless similarities.Economic globalization has created a platform for different countries andpeoples in comprehensive communications and optimized allocation of resources,bringing mankind into a new commercial information age. Commercials advertisingeverywhere at any time have become an integral part of man’s life, as well as playingan important role on cultural communication.The famous American ad. man DinuoBeidi Fandenute summarizes the cultural functions of commercials:“We should admit that we do affect the culture of the world, because advertisement is a part of modernculture as a whole, which is the sender and creator of culture”(Li Zhigang,2004:57).Chinese scholar Eva Hung’s understanding of cultural dissemination function of thetranslation is that in the history of human civilization, a lot of progress derives fromthe impact of foreign knowledge. There is a huge change in social, cultural andknowledge systems, so the whole cultural system is finally revitalized (Emily Kong,1999:The Preamble). Knowledge transfer mainly relies on language as a tool, and theforeign knowledge transfer obviously involves foreign languages. Hence, translationhas always been an critical channel for dissemination of foreign knowledge. We caneven say that almost every major culture’s development benefits from translationactivities, with which, people can understand each other, cultures can communicateand societies can civilize. Translation of commercial advertisements would becarefully tailored to respect the cultural traditions, resulted in multiple effectsincluding the profits for companies, fun ideas for people and enriched content forsocial life. Therefore, commercial advertisement translation is not merely a technique,but an art. In nowadays, while the commercial advertisements promote their productsand services, they spread, affect, even innovate their own culture and otherssimultaneously.The first chapter “Introduction” is the basis of this dissertation. This chapterexplains the motivation and theoretical supporting materials, trying to elaborate therelationships of between philosophy and culture, language and culture, translation andculture, translation and cultural exchanges. From the perspective of the philosophy ofcultural exchanges, this dissertation studies the phenomena and problems involvingChinese advertisements which are translated into English editions. Comparativereviewing the research literatures emphasizes the importance and innovations of thisdissertation.The second chapter “The relationship between cultural communication andtranslation of commercials” and the third one “The subjectivity of translator ofcommercials in the economic globalization” are the main contents of this dissertation.The second chapter illustrates the understanding of cultural exchanges, its impacts on and requirement for commercial advertisement translation, as well as the propertiesand difficulties of commercial advertisement translation. The third chapter mainlyinterpret and analyze the factors affecting the translator’s subjectivity and itsperformance from the perspective of cultural exchanges. In this section, I clarify therelationship between cultural exchange and commercial advertisement translationfrom the theoretical level, in terms of finding regularity trying to deepen and improvethe research of advertisement translation, and giving the research of keeping pacewith the times.The fourth chapter “The features of commercial advertisements and theprinciples of their translation from perspective of cultural exchange” and the fifthchapter “Commercial advertisement translation methods from perspective of culturalexchange” are the contents related to application. The fourth chapter mainly comparesthe cultural and linguistic characteristics of Chinese and English commercialadvertisements, and then sums up the translation principles of Chinese commercialadvertisements. In the fifth chapter, reflection and examination of commercialadvertisement translation in real life are discussed. Based on analysis oferror-translation examples, the practical methods to translate commercialadvertisement are found. The article relies on the argument of this: Because societyitself is colorful and diverse, as a practical text study, commercial advertisementtranslation would be exanimated by the real social life, thereby gaining enrichmentand development.The sixth chapter is the conclusion, summarizing the research results andsuggestions for further research.Due to my limited ability, it is inevitable that omissions or irregularities intheory illustrations, theory and practice analysis and case studies. I just hope that thisstudy will stir up the research on China’s cultural exchanges with foreign countries,and inspire Chinese commercial advertisement translation studies as a thought andreference. |
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