| This thesis, on the theoretical basis of relevance theory, is mainly engaged in the discussion of culturaldefault by making comments on the translation compensation work of Mo Yan's Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh translated by Howard Goldblatt.As one of China's outstanding contemporary writers, Mo Yan enjoys great reputation both at home and aboard with his works bursting with local flavor of Gaomi, Shangdong province. Also as one of the prominent translators in the West, Howard Goldblatt helps Mo Yan's works sweep among foreign readership and earns enduring fame. Because both the author and translator are leading figures respectively in the field of literature and translation, the text with its English version are somewhat authoritative and representative. Since rare research form the perspective of cultural default has set foot in the case study of Chinese contemporary translated works especially Mo Yan's, it attaches much originality and interest to the present research.The thesis in the beginning focuses on the argument that since relevance theory takes communication and cognition as its core, and cultural default is by nature a cognitive and psychological phenomenon in communication, therefore, the relevance theory should help to shed some light on cultural default. Then, within the theoretical framework of optimal relevance and the structural framework of compensation strategies proposed according to the English version, illustration and comparison are conducted to make comments on the translated version.In the conclusion, the present thesis proves the argument that optimal relevance has explanatory power to cultural default and further points out that optimal relevance does not just mean superficial or literal relevance, but functional relevance which actually weighs most in dealing with cultural default compensation; besides, the translator should be not only bilingual but also bicultural so as to realize his role as an interlingual and intercultural mediator.
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