On Translation Of Culture-loaded Words And Expressions In Lin Yutang's My Country And My People

With the increasingly frequent cultural exchanges between China and the west, a growing number of western readers want to know more about the splendid Chinese culture. In recent years, cultural translation has also been given great emphasis by domestic and foreign scholars. My Country and My People is Lin Yutang's fame-setting piece and masterpiece in the western literary world. It is through this book Lin Yutang successfully introduced Chinese culture to the western readers and caused a great sensation in the world. In this English novel, Lin, as the author, translated lots of Chinese folk sayings, proverbs, epigrams, poems and classical works into English. Therefore, the success of Lin Yutang's writing owes a lot to his translation. The translation of culture-loaded words, as one of difficulties for Lin in transferring Chinese culture, deserves our attention and analysis.This thesis, based on the Skopostheorie, is intended to probe into the translation of culture-loaded words in My Country and My People.The author of the thesis will first clarify the involvement of translating process in My Country and My People from the perspective of intertextuality. A deep analysis of the translation of the culture-loaded words in this book is further carried out.Lin Yutang has an explicit translation skopos, which is to introduce Chinese culture to the westerners. Bearing this skopos in mind, he chose documentary translation as the primary translation strategy which makes it possible to retain the original Chinese flavor and meet the aesthetic expectations of western readers. Meanwhile, considering the target readers'acceptability, instrumental translation was also employed to make appropriate adjustments to the translation for the sake of readers'better understandings. With the great popularity of My Country and My People in the west, it is possible to say that Lin's translation is "adequate" and successful, which also makes a great contribution to the cross-culture communication between China and the west.The author hopes that this thesis would shed light on the future translation of culture-loaded words in other literary books, which may also help people overcome the culture barriers.