A Systematic Study On C-E Translation Of Cultural Relic Texts In Museums

Museum, as a treasure house of historical culture, has been undertaking the responsibility of remembering history and communicating culture since its foundation in 1682. With the collection, preservation and study of cultural relics, museum plays an important role in bridging history and culture, and offers a solid material foundation for the scientific study of history and historical culture. Both developed and developing countries throughout the world consider museum as an indispensable platform for the exhibition and appreciation of cultural and art treasures handed down through a long period of human history. Since Chinese culture is long in history, various in form and rich in content, Chinese museum is even more important.With the globalization of the world and the success of 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, "Chinese elements" greatly attract people from all over the world. Under such circumstances, the translation of cultural relic texts plays an increasingly important role in introducing and publicizing Chinese culture to foreign visitors and to the outside world. In order to spread "Chinese elements" throughout the world, many museums provide equivalent English texts. Some books concerning cultural relics have also been published. Among them, China Museums: Treasure Houses of History published in 2002 and Museums in Beijing published in January, 2008 by Foreign Languages Press together with China's Museums published by China Intercontinental Press in 2004 are the most well-known. All the materials have played an essential role in introducing Chinese traditional and national culture and carrying forward the brilliance of the cultural heritage to people throughout the world.But due to a lack of theoretical direction, there are still many problems and mistakes in the translation of cultural relic texts in museums, and the study on the translation of cultural relic texts has not yet got enough attention up to now. In 1991, the first article by Mu Shanpei appeared on Shanghai Science and Technology Translators Journal discussing the problem of faithfulness and smoothness of C-E translation of cultural relics. Ten years later, in 2001, the second paper dealing with the cultural information in the names of cultural relics appeared on Chinese Science and Technology Translators Journal. In the following several years, several articles were published, yet the topics were restricted to the "expressiveness" and "faithfulness" of the translation of names of cultural relics. In 2006, a postgraduate in Guangdong University of Foreign Studies(广东外语外贸大学) wrote her thesis titled A Cultural Study of Domestication and Foreignization in Translation of Relic Texts in Museums and offered a more detailed discussion. But she was only exploring the translation methods of foreignization and domestication from the cultural perspective, and gave no particular explanation to the translation of cultural relic texts in Chinese museums. In fact, up to now, no one has ever done any systematic study on the translation of cultural relic texts in museums from the perspective of intercultural communication.This paper, which uses the theory of intercultural communication, cultural convergence theory in particular, as its theoretical basis, will meet the needs of the time to conduct a systematic study of the translation of cultural relic texts in museums by way of case study, contrast and comparison, as well as induction. The author intends to build a simple model of the translating process of cultural relic texts in museums with reference to the modes of intercultural encounter and communication and the convergence model of communication. Moreover, on the basis of the analysis of the English texts, the nature and methods of the translation of cultural relic texts in museums will be investigated, and a number of principles and criteria will be presented. Most importantly, the process of the translation of cultural relic texts in museums will be clarified. If all the goals are reached, this paper will be of some importance to improve the quality of the translation of cultural relic texts in museums, to promote effective intercultural communication, and to propose a new perspective to the study of translation.This paper consists of six chapters altogether: a general introduction, four main-body parts and a conclusion. Chapter One is the introduction of the paper. In this chapter, the author briefly introduces the rationale, the significance and the goal of the study on translation of cultural relic texts in museums. The study method and the organization of the paper will also be mentioned in this part.Chapter Two starts with the history and the current situation of the study on the translation of cultural relic texts in museums. From the literature review, it is quite obvious that the study on this subject is still inadequate. So, for the convenience of further discussion, the author starts the study with the clarification of several important concepts related (culture, communication and intercultural communication) and a brief introduction of cultural relics and cultural relic texts in museums. The author has a strong belief that only with a thorough understanding of the cultural relic texts, translators can render them better.Chapter Three summarizes the cultural convergence theory and the modes of cultural encounter and communication, the convergence model of communication in particular. "Convergence" implies that two or more things are moving towards one point, towards one another, or towards uniformity. During the process of communication, information is shared by two or more participants who converge over time towards a greater degree of mutual understanding. This will be manifested in the convergence model of communication. As for the modes of intercultural encounter and communication, dialogical mode is preferred among the four modes considering the relationship of different cultures nowadays.Chapter Four applies the cultural convergence theory to the translation of cultural relic texts in museums. A model of translating process is set up to explain the process of the translation of this particular field. With the reference to the model and the analysis of the English texts in Henan Museum, the merits and demerits of the translation are made clear. On this basis, the methods of the translation of cultural relic texts are induced.Chapter Five offers a general investigation of the process, the nature, the principles and criteria of the translation of cultural relic texts on the basis of the above discussion.Chapter Six concludes the main standpoints of the paper. The translation of cultural relic texts in museums is a part of culture and should be rendered from the perspective of intercultural communication. In order to reach a mutual understanding between China and foreign countries and gain a worldwide acceptance, the translation of cultural relic texts in museums should be rendered in the light of cultural convergence theory.