An Authentic Portrait Of Chinese Culture

With Lawrence Venuti's foreignization and domestication as the theoretical basis, this thesis makes a detailed and in-depth study on the translation of the culture-loaded terms in Lin Yutang's novel Moment in Peking into English. Based on the analysis of the translation of the culture-loaded terms, it further explores the significance of the translation strategies utilized to deal with the Chinese culture-loaded terms in Chinese-English translation.First, this thesis reviews the elaborations and debates among the translators on domestication and foreignization in important historical periods both at home and abroad in an attempt to make a comprehensive and objective introduction on these two translation strategies. Another review is also made on the studies on Lin Yutang and Moment in Peking since the 1980s. A classification and detailed analysis are made in the following chapter which shows that an overwhelming majority of the culture-loaded terms in this novel were translated with the strategy of foreignization coupled with elaborate explanations or annotations and just a small number of them were translated with the strategy of domestication. In the following chapter, the advantages and limitations of foreignization in Chinese-English translation are discussed. It is no exaggeration to say that the great success of this novel is partly due to the successful translation of the culture-loaded terms in it. Therefore, this thesis argues that foreignization should be our prior choice in the translation of Chinese culture-loaded terms, which has always been considered a special difficulty in Chinese-English translation.At last, this thesis suggests that in the translation of Chinese culture-loaded terms, we should give prior consideration to foreignization coupled with necessary explanations and annotations without causing the information overloaded to the reader.