On The Translation Of Chinese Menus Into English: A Functionalist Approach

Chinese culinary culture boasts a long history with distinct characteristics. It plays a significant role in the exchange between cultures. A good Chinese and English bilingual menu can not only help guests order dishes, but also play a unique role in spreading Chinese culinary culture. Although bilingual menus can be found everywhere in Chinese restaurants and hotels, most of these renderings are far from satisfactory. And the studies on menu translation are mainly limited to methods and strategies based on personal translating experiences and therefore, lack comprehensive theoretical framework to serve as a guideline. In light of this situation, based on the contrastive study of Chinese and English menus, the author seeks to explore the English translation of Chinese menus from a new perspective, taking functionalist translation theory as its theoretical basis.According to the functionalist translation theory, a source text just acts as "an offer of information", from which a translator chooses certain pieces of information to form a target text that can meet the requirements for the target situation in the target context. A menu, as a complete and independent text, falls into the "informative plus operative" category. Its informative function is to provide information concerning dishes including ingredients, seasonings, cooking methods, etc., while the operative function, to put it simply, is to persuade guests to order dishes.From the contrasts between a Chinese menu and an English menu, the author finds that although both of them have the same functions of informative and operative, different methods are adopted by each to realize its function, which are manifested in their different dish naming methods. As far as the style is concerned, Chinese dishes are diversified in dish naming; balanced and rhythmical four-character phrases, rhetoric, legends and allusions are preferred. In contrast, the naming of English dishes is relatively simple, in which attention is paid to the conveyance of the basic information of dishes and the length of the dish names can be either long or short without any discrimination. As to the content, differences are shown in the expressions of the constituent elements of Chinese dish names and English dish names, particularly in regards of the ingredients, seasonings, cooking methods, colors, flavors, textures and shapes. In addition, the layout of the Chinese menu and its counterpart is also different. Therefore, in translating a Chinese menu into English, a translator should regard the Chinese menu as "a source of information", and only by taking into consideration the cultural background and acceptability of the guests from English-speaking countries, can he adjust and reproduce the English version to realize its intended function in the English context i.e., providing information of the dishes, persuading guests to order dishes, promoting the image of a hotel and spreading Chinese culinary culture.The author also classifies the translation errors occurring in the process of Chinese menu translation and briefly analyzes the causes behind them. Finally, on the basis of the classification of Chinese dish names, the author puts forward some specific translation methods including literal translation, free translation, free translation plus explanation, free translation plus literal translation, pinyin or pinyin plus notes, pinyin plus literal translation plus background information (on an attached brochure), and analogy. The strategy of non-translation is also suggested for special cases.