Studies On English Translation Of Chinese Dish Names

It's known to all that with the globalization of economy, international exchange is now very common and English is being more and more important. In recent years, the ever-increasing importance of the exchange of food and cuisine culture between China and the West has been evident. Chinese cuisine is regarded as a great wonder of collection of cooking skills in foreign people's eyes. While the sight of Chinese food brings pleasure, the names of dishes also capture close attention of foreigners. Since the dish name is the first impression given to a dining person when he or she decides to order a dish, it is important to convey accurate information to the customer. However, cuisine translation has rarely been considered worthy of serious academic study, much less Chinese dish name translation.In this thesis, the author attempts to introduce Eugene Nida's functional equivalence theory into the research of translation of Chinese dish names. By functional equivalence, Nida refers to the equivalence "first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style". Nida also holds that the degree to which the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to the TLT should be the same as the degree to which the receptors in the source language respond to the SLT. Meanwhile, Hans Robert Jauss' Reception Aesthetics theory is also mentioned. According to Reception Aesthetics, the aesthetic significance of a translated version can not be fully realized without the reader's reception.In this thesis, the author analyzes the features of Chinese dishes and dish names, makes a comparative study between Chinese and English culture, especially the food culture, points out the problems in the existing English translation of Chinese dish names and then discloses the corresponding causes. Last and the most important, he author explores five translation methods. They are literal translation, free translation, literal plus free translation, transliteration, and literal plus transliteration, based on Nida's functional equivalence.Through the intensive analysis of Chinese dishes from several aspects, the author concludes that the translation of Chinese dish names should be taken seriously to unify the standards in the English translation so that Chinese food culture will be accepted and appreciated more widely.