Cultural Analyses Of The English Versions Of Tourist Materials Of Guilin

"Throughout the ages man has traveled in search of new places, new lands, new cultures and experiences, but it is only in the 20th century that mass tourism has truly come about."(向萍, 1998: 31)Tourism has become one of the most dynamic and fastest developing industries in the world. The World Tourism Organization has made such a forecast that tourism is becoming the world's most booming industry. It helps bridge the psychological and cultural distance between people of diverse races, colors, religions, social status, and it helps accelerate economic development, enhance awareness and understanding between nationals. China is one of the few countries in the world which is endowed with abundant tourist resources ranging from vast territory, long-standing history, brilliant civilization, wonderful natural landscape to multi-ethnic culture. All of them are valuable asset for China to develop tourism. Located in the South of China, Guilin has always been the highlight in an inbound trip. Featuring of "green hills, clear water, fantastic caves and spectacular rocks", Guilin has great potential for specialized tourism focusing on ethnic groups and environmental adventure. To make the beautiful city known to all over the world, tourist materials introducing Guilin are required to be translated into English--the international language. They include all written texts informing visitors Guilin's tourist resources, scenic spots, local custom and culture, etc. Various in form are the materials, they have a purpose in common, arousing the interests of more potential tourists to visit Guilin. The local government and Tourism Bureau have invested a lot of human and material resources to do the job for the inestimable impact the translated publications may bring about to Guilin's tourism industry. Even so, the quality of such kind of translation is not satisfactory. Errors like spelling mistakes, incorrect collocation, grammar-violating and wrongly structured sentences spread all over the pages, in addition, there are serious problems caused by cultural factors. As everybody knows, language, culture and translation are closely related to one another. Language is a component and the carrier of culture, in return, the advancement of culture can greatly push forward the development of language. The relationship between language and culture leads to a close relationship between translation and culture. To translate a foreign language actually means to study a culture binding behind, so culture is an important element that a translator has to bear in mind. In the paper, many specific samples are given to show how the translation is greatly affected by culture. In this thesis, Nida's theories like "dynamic equivalence", "functional equivalence"and "readers'response"are introduced. All of them stress upon the reproduction of the closest natural equivalents of the source language for target readers, which is most desirable in the English versions of tourist materials. Lastly, based on the special function of tourist materials and Nida's theories, various of methods like explanation, adding, analogy and comparison, deletion, summarization, and compilation are introduced respectively through specific samples to improve the poor quality of the English versions of tourist materials of Guilin.