Translation Of Chinese Culture-Loaded Words:a Perspective Of Discourse Power Theory

In recent years, along with the deeper research on the cultural turn of translation, the relation between translation and power has been extensively focused on. In a sense, the study on translation and power is the further development of translation's cultural tendency, which guides the shift of studies from the internal elements of textual translation to a broader cultural vision. Scholars start studying translation from multidimensional perspectives such as history, politics, and the social culture, ideology. Power is now the key issue in culture studies. Culture studies on power contain both the visible aspects like political and economic power and the recessive power relations like the oppressing and the repressed, the controlling and the controlled. Foucault's discourse power theory suggested that power is everywhere, power is essentially the power of language, word is not only the tool to exercise power, but also the key to obtain power, power and discourse is inseparable. When controlling the cultural force of discourse power, one can achieve the strong culture status. Strong culture with its advanced science and technology is easy to gain the discourse power in the cultural exchange and manipulate the weak culture. Therefore, in the vision of the culture and discourse power theory, the history of translation is also a history of literary innovation, and a history that a certain culture endows its cultural power on another culture (Bassnett&Lefevere,1990:ix). Owing to the characteristics of a language itself, thinking ways and life experience and other factors of a certain language, every nation has its unique vocabulary reflecting the culture, which is also called culture-loaded words. Culture-loaded words in a certain way can reflect a nation's cultural characteristics mostly, then how to correctly translate culture-loaded words has become one of the keys to master a nation's discourse power, and to keep a nation's cultural identity. With the rising of China's economy and politics in the world, Chinese culture is still in a relatively weak position. In order to keep the national cultural identity and to gain more discourse power in international communication, there are more and more calls in recent years.This paper attempts to combine the former studies on the translation of Chinese culture-loaded words with discourse power theory. It analyzes the translation feasibility of Chinese culture-loaded words from the discourse power perspective. Through some typical translation cases in Chinese culture-loaded words, this article demonstrates discourse's power function and its operating forms in the translating process. In this paper, the author intends to point out that translation as kind of social behavior, will always be influenced and manipulated by various kinds of power factors. The relationship between translation with power and translation's power is very complicated, which is filled with all kinds of interactions of power factors. In translation, translators should also take into account all sorts of power factors which have affected the translation of culture-loaded terms. Translators also need to identify the most appropriate translation to promote the smooth communication in intercultural exchange.