On Cultural Translation Of Moment In Peking From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Lin Yutang was a great master of language who had both the Chinese culture and the Western culture always in his mind and dedicated himself to the communication between China and the West. Of his many great English works, Moment in Peking is perhaps the most important one. This novel reflects the history of the Chinese nation from the Boxer Rebellion to Anti-Japanese War. Representing Chinese society and culture, the novel is acknowledged as the Modern version of A Dream of Red Mansions.Cultural study is a popular topic in recent years, but scholars in this field concentrate only on such macro aspects of it as the influence of ideology, politics, historical and cultural factors, which would only give limited help. Therefore, the author of the thesis tries to make a comparison of two Chinese versions of Moment in Peking from the perspective of Skopos theory in order to give some enlightment of cultural translation. In the framework of Skopos theory, all human actions including translation action are purposeful activities. In addition, different translation Skopos determines a translator?s choice of source text, through which a translator adjusts his translation strategies accordingly so as to achieve different Skopos in translation. There are altogether five chapters in this thesis.Chapter one is a general introduction of this study. Chapter two is an overview of culture, including the definition, the categorization of culture and its relationship with language and translation.Chapter three is a synoptic description of Skopos theory, including the formation and development of Skopos theory, basic ideas and the merits of Skopos theory. From the perspective of Skopos theory, chapter four explores the cultural translations of Moment in Peking within the four subsystems of culture:techno-economic system, social system, ideational system, and linguistic system. The purpose is to see how the Skopos in a translational action influences the translators? choice of translation strategies, and what effects are achieved. This part is preceded by an introduction to LinYutang?s life experience and the novel Moment in Peking as well as the two translators of the novel.The last chapter is the conclusion that the strategies depend on the Skopos. No matter what strategies one takes, the translation will be successful as long as a certain Skopos is met.