Foreignization Or Domestication?

With China's reform and opening up, external publicity is receiving ever-increasing concern. So is publicity literature translation, in which field many studies have been conducted and inspiring fruits yielded. However, the previous researches on Chinese-English translation of publicity materials are largely focused on the linguistic aspects of translation and specific translation skills. Studies of the cultural factors and translation strategy under cultural influence leave much to be desired. The present paper is an attempt to give an in-depth analysis of the translation strategy adopted in C-E publicity literature translation, and to explore the deep-rooted cultural reasons for the situation. Due to the distinctive features and functions of publicity materials, the appropriate strategy for C-E publicity literature translation is domestication rather than foreignization. Approached from a broader perspective, the choice of domestication results mainly from cultural disparity that widely exists in international communication, for the C-E translation of publicity materials is under the strong influence of the cultural position of our nation, regretfully a dissatisfactory one at present. Venuti's foreignization theory and Even-Zohar's Polysystem theory are applied in the research. That the cultural position of a nation and/or of the translated literature in the receiving culture will exert strong influence on the translation strategy, as they believe, is well proved in C-E translation of publicity materials. In addition to translation strategy, cultural disparity also affects the translator's choice of texts and the reception of the translated publicity materials. To better introduce China to the outside world, we should prescribe appropriate strategy to achieve desired quality of publicity literature translation and publicity effect. At the same time, we should always keep our predicament and responsibility in mind, and strive to preserve and transmit Chinese culture in C-E publicity literature translation on condition that comprehensibility of the translated text is achieved.