On Translation Of Chinese Menu For Beijing 2008 Olympic Games From The Perspective Of Functionalism Theory

Designed to serve Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the manual book entitled English Versions of Chinese Menu was officially published, which resulted in the unified and standard translation for Chinese menu. After its publication, it has attracted extensive attention at home and abroad. It is very difficult but greatly significant to give a relatively authoritative version for Chinese menu and lay down some unified translation principles. The publication of the manual book entitled English Versions of Chinese Menu will not only improve the qualities of service industries in Beijing and make foreign customers or sportsmen feel convenient to have dinner in restaurants,but also in the long run will enhance the development of tourism industry and promote Chinese cuisine culture which has a long history with deep cultural connotations.According to the functionalism theory, translation is a type of complicated human action with specific purposes. During the process of translation, translators should carefully analyze and consider source text. To some degree, translators should try every possible means to keep the compatibility with language characteristics between target text and source text on the condition that his or her translation will not go against the functions of target text. Sometimes it is quite essential to keep the unique language characteristics of source text. So the functionalism theory is an effective guiding theory for this study. Meanwhile, Nord, as the representative of functionalism theory, advocated that translators should have the right to adjust and rewrite the source text in accordance with the criteria of target-language culture. Even if the translation has some slight deviation from the source text, it will still be regarded as a successful one so long as it can faithfully convey or realize the intentions and functions of source text. Guided by the theory of functionalism, this thesis has made an attempt to analyze translation purposes, translation principles and the characteristics of naming Chinese dishes in the manual book entitled English Versions of Chinese Menu. By analyzing many examples, the present author has summed up four common and effective translation methods, such as literal translation, free translation, transliteration, and loan translation. In the light of the basic translation principle restoring the content of source text and the chief translation purpose exhibiting the uniqueness and characteristics of Chinese cuisine culture so as to promote Chinese cuisine culture and finally carry forward Chinese culture, the author of this thesis has also elaborated the inclinations of two translation value strategies: the naturalization translation strategy and the dissimilation translation strategy. The naturalization translation strategy results in the fact that the Chinese phonetic alphabets for some Chinese-featured dishes will be gradually integrated into English, and then accepted and become popular in English-speaking countries. Under the guidance of the dissimilation translation strategy, the majority of Chinese dishes are translated focusing on raw materials and cooking methods, which helps foreign customers easily understand what they are to eat and what is consistent with their language-usage habit with the pursuit of conciseness. However, the cultural connotations of some Chinese traditional dishes have evaporated or been lost. Literal translation, free translation, transliteration, and loan translation can be adopted to solve the problems caused by the differences in language and culture between China and the West and meanwhile to guarantee successful cross-cultural communication. By using these translation methods, we can avoid to a certain extent the loss of cultural connotations of Chinese traditional dishes when they are rendered into English by one translation strategy.