A Study Of Chinese-English Translation Of Tourist Promotion Materials From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

This is a Skopostheorie-guided and practice-based thesis intended to explore practical strategies for the C-E translation of tourist promotion materials (TPM).As China opens its door wider to the world, China's inbound tourism plays an increasingly important role in its national economy, so the basic aspects of the industry, including the C-E translation of TPM, deserve greater attention. However, the research in this field is far from enough. The published researches are either confined to the lexical level, or lacking in theoretical framework. Recognizing that the purposes of translated TPM are to attract foreign tourists and to promote intercultural communication, the thesis proposes that Skopostheorie is the right theory guiding the TPM translation.A group of scholars have contributed to the development of Skopostheorie, among whom are Katharina Reiss, Hans J. Vermeer and Christiane Nord. The three basic rules of the theory are Skopos, coherence and fidelity, with the Skopos rule being the top priority of the translator. In order to fulfill the Skopos of translated TPM, the translator should produce target texts coherent with foreign tourists' cultural background, especially with their writing tradition of TPM.After making a comparative research in the writing characteristics of both Chinese and English TPM, the thesis highlights the following four differences: subjective vs. objective language, lacking vs. rich in information, low vs. high personal visibility and different ways of text organization. More importantly, the thesis probes the cultural differences resulting in these different characteristics.Guided by Skopostheorie and based on the comparative research, the thesis moves on to five major strategies for the C-E translation of TPM. They are addition, omission, paraphrase, analogy and adaptation. They prove to be pragmatic and effective, solving the dilemma of factual effects and traditional translation theory. It is proposed in the end that as China accumulates more soft power, the strategies should also change with time.