On Lingual Domestication And Cultural Foreignization In Chinese-English Translation

By no means is translation a simple switch of languages; indeed it provides the background or rather the stage for an intercultural communication to take place thus enhancing a better understanding among cultures in the long run which is also the major role translation plays and main reason why we translate. To simply put, translation aims at building a bridge between different cultures with language as its paving stone, i.e., language by itself is not the goal but a means we use to do cultures. Chinese and English cultures have developed their characteristics and peculiarities respectively over ages; then how to make them mutually intelligible while maintaining their own cultural specifics is what we mainly concern in translating, which is also what the present dissertation aims to probe.Active and creative as they are when reading a translated version, the readers will be far from being content with what has been already familiar to them; what they expect in reading is something new, exotic though sometimes even conflicting to what they know. Therefore, we should remain Chinese culture-loaded elements in translated versions as much as possible; that is to say, we should let China English talk by adopting cultural foreignization as the major translation strategy. The English speaking readers hold no less fantasy and enthusiasm to ancient Chinese cultures than we do to western cultures. But how to ensure a smooth transfer of China English to fulfill the mission of translation---a successful inter-cultural communication? The answer is no other than the proper use of idiomatic English. In other words, we should avoid Chinglish which applies mechanically the rules or habitual usage of Chinese in translating into English and which may surely sound awkward to a native ear by domesticating on the level of language thus paving the way for a successful cultural foreignization. In a word, that we should use other's words to express our peculiarities is what the present writer holds a translator should do in his Chinese-English translation.