Foreignization And Domestication:Comparative Study On English Translation Of Chinese Characters Names With "Chun","Yu","Bao","Cai" In Hong Lou Meng

In translation studies, domestication and foreignization are always the focus of contention in translation activities. Both of the translation strategies emphasize the importance of culture in the translation theory. But the former lays stress on the reader’s culture, the latter emphasizes the author’s culture.Hong Lou Meng is one of four great classical masterpieces in China. It achieves high reputation by the profound cultural foundation. There are many English versions translated by different translators through out the world. The names of characters in Hong Lou Meng are not only the simple symbols, but also the personalities of the characters and even the fates of characters endowed by Cao Xueqin. So how to translate those names into English and convey the true intention of the author is not easy, and even hard. This thesis chose three representative English versions of Hong Lou Meng to study and compare the translation of characters’names. The three English versions are separately translated by Yang Xianyi, David Hawkes and Huang Xinqu. In Yang Xianyi’s A Dream of Red Mansions, he chiefly chose foreignization strategies in his version. All of the characters’names are translated through the Chinese phoneticization. In Huang Xinqu’s A Dream of Red Mansions, he principally used domesticating strategies in his version. Most of the characters’names are translated word by word into corresponding English word. In The Story of the Stone translated by David Hawkes, the translation of those characters’names is divided into two types. The major characters’names are translated through foreignization, while the minor characters’names are translated through domestication. After comparing the three versions, the author thinks that the version of Hawkes is much better than the other two versions in the translation of the characters’names because most of the translation can present the connotation in the original work. The foreignization adopted in the major characters embodied main structure of the story, and the domestication used in minor characters well reflects their characteristic and the destiny. Therefore, the combination of foreignization and domestication used in the translation of the characters’names could better restore the intention of the author, and also let the reader explicitly understand the connotation of the story.The aim of this thesis is to show which is more suitable when the two strategies used in translation of character names. And they both can develop positive effect in conveying different culture information.