On Chinese-English Translation Of Publicity Materials--Present Situation, Problems And Possible Solutions

This paper studies Chinese-English translation of publicity materials, including its present situation, problems and possible solutions. Although translation of such materials is not something new and much emphasis has been laid on it, the present situation is far from satisfactory. Problems that existed more than a decade ago are still prevalent in formal and informal publications these days and the quality of translations leaves much to be desired.This paper is an attempt to give an in-depth analysis of the possible reasons for the existence of problems in C-E translation of publicity materials. The problems are of both linguistic and extra-linguistic nature. Linguistic differences account for part of the problems. However, the subsystems in both the source-language society and the target-language society such as linguistics, politics, ideology and culture all have their roles to play in translation. The "Polysystem theory", the "patronage" theory and the "Skopostheorie" are applied in this paper. The first two theories help to view translation activities in a much wider perspective, revealing a multitude of factors in the translation process. Therefore, translation should be studied in the polysystem in which translation is an integral part. On the basis of such analysis, tentative solutions are suggested from both the macro and micro perspectives. And the Skopostheorie will justify the specific translation strategies previously considered unacceptable by traditional translation theories, such as addition, annotation, simplification, deletion, analogy and restructuring.