Translation Of Cultural Image In Chinese Tourism Text: A Reception Aesthetics Perspective

With Chinese tourism industry booming extensively in the world, studies on tourism translation have received more and more attention in the translation field. It not only boosts the publicity and introduction of Chinese culture, but also motivates the interaction and communication between east and west. Translation of tourism text, however, is more a cross-cultural communication between two cultures than a linguistic transmission between two language systems. How to appropriately transfer the cultural images in tourism text has posed a great challenge to all translators. That cultural images are delicately transferred from one culture to another will determine the possibility of a success of translated works. Though many scholars have probed into this issue under the guidance of related linguistic theories, they just focus the only attention on the text itself, little taking reader's role into consideration. Reception aesthetics, as a literary criticism theory, has formally established the reader's leading role in the translation study for the first time. Breaking away from the text-centered principle of traditional translation theories, reception theory has provided a new research perspective for the translation study of tourism text, rendering a profound influence on the transmission of cultural images. This thesis, in the light of reception aesthetics, aims to put forward the idea that translated text should realize its fusion with reader's horizon of expectation and seek an ideal combination between eastern and western culture. Meanwhile, on the basis of detailed explanation of some classical samples in tourism translation, it is pointed out that translators, for the sake of the target readers, should select a most suitable strategy in transmitting cultural image. Only in this way can a cultural image be completely and successfully transmitted into another culture in practice.When coming to the structure of the thesis, the author firstly presents the relevant issues about cultural image, including its definition, classification and characteristics. At the same time, the author argues that cultural image plays an indispensable part in fulfilling the function of the tourism text. Next, theoretical framework is established. And then the author switches to the significance and implication of reception aesthetics on translation practice. Finally, the author proposes some efficient strategies in tackling the cultural image. In a word, the transmission of cultural image in tourism text is a hard bone to every translator since it has been argued for a long time in the past. This thesis is the fruit of the author's translation practice and theoretical research during the past few months. Immature and defective as it may be in many aspects, it is hoped that some suggestions and advice presented hereby will shed new insight into further study of cultural image in tourism text translation.