Differences Between Chinese And English Culture And The Relevant Translation Strategies

In recent years, with the rapid development of economy and cultural exchange in the world, there is a trend towards cross-cultural studies increasingly. More and more scholars consider translation as a cross-cultural activity. However, different nations have different cultures. As far as Chinese and English is concerned, the differences in value, religion, historical background and natural environment etc. have caused culture difference. This has resulted in great difficulty for translation. Even if the translator understands the source text very well, meaning lost is inevitable. How to deal with culture difference in translation? Is the target text absolutely equivalent to the source text? Which is better, domestication or foreignization? Which methods should be adopted in translation? This thesis intends to make a tentative research on these questions. The thesis consists of six chapters.Chapter one gives an introduction to this thesis and reviews some important theories of culture and translation put forward by the famous scholars in the field of translation at home and abroad.Chapter two probes into the definition of culture, translation, the relationship between culture and language, and the relationship between culture and translation. Culture and language are interdependent. The relationship of culture and language determines the relationship between culture and translation. Culture influences translation and translation enriches culture.Chapter three analyzes the reasons for culture difference. The difficulty confronted with the translator is not only language structure, but also culture connotation of the source language. In this chapter, the author explores the reasons caused by culture difference, such as values, religion, historical background, geographical and natural environment etc. Chapter four focuses on meaning lost and relativity of translation equivalence. It is because of culture difference of Chinese and English that the translator faces difficulty in translation. Both Lin Shu and Ezra Pond translated a large number of works. However meaning lost is very common in their translation. Some other examples are given to illustrate meaning lost because of culture difference. The conclusion is made that there isn't any absolute translation equivalence. Translation is the communication between two cultures, and culture difference and culture clash are inevitable. To solve these problems, the translation has to be made some changes in content, form etc. Therefore, the source text and the target text can only reach relative equivalence. The author illustrates this point from the perspective of meaning, form, rhetoric and style by various examples.Chapter five discusses translation strategies and approaches to translation. Domestication and foreignization are two translation strategies represented by Eugine Nida and Lawrence Venuti respectively. The author thinks that the two strategies have their own advantages, and they are complimentary to each other. Moreover, the author puts forward some approaches to translation, such as word-for-word translation, word-for-word translation and notes, replacement translation, meaning translation etc, and gives a lot of examples.Chapter Six is the conclusion. According to the above analysis, the author thinks that culture learning should be paid much attention in translation learning. The translator should acquaint himself or herself with culture knowledge to be competent for translation.