A Study On "Sugarcoated Translation" Of Culture-Loaded Words In Moment In Peking-A Postcolonial Theory Perspective

Along with the development of Chinese cross-culture communication, translation has already become an important method for Chinese cultural "going out". However, due to the distinction between Chinese culture and western culture, people have met immense difficulties in the process of translation, especially in the translation of Chinese culture-loaded words. Thus the adoption of a good translation strategy is extremely important there. In1989, Mr. Wang Zuoliang, a famous translator in China proposed a new translation strategy, which calls for sugarcoating in translation.13years later, Professor Sun Yifeng gave a further interpretation of sugarcoated translation, and suggested that we should also sugarcoat our local culture and export them in today’s translation.However, based on the material gathered, no further research has been made to analyze sugarcoated translation, not to mention the research about the specific practices. This thesis regards sugarcoated translation as the research object and analyzes it from the postcolonial theory perspective based on the former studies. The methodology adopts in the thesis is qualitative research. Through the enumeration of examples, the introduction of relevant documents and the comparison of texts, the author illustrates the importance of sugarcoated translation, and how we should sugarcoat our culture and export it.Specifically, the thesis chooses Moment in Peking as the example of case. Through the analysis of Lin Yutang’s expression of Chinese culture-loaded words in English, the author probes into the application and possible influence of sugarcoated translation in the context of globalization. Three conclusions are made in the end:firstly, through the analysis of concatenation of relationships among language, culture, and sugarcoated translation, the author finds out that sugarcoated translation could be used in translation to increase the readability of the text while remaining the uniqueness of Chinese language and Chinese culture. Secondly, through the analysis of the translation of culture-loaded words in Moment in Peking, the author finds out that sugarcoated translation can seek the common place between those two cultures while remaining the existing difference of Chinese culture, thus realize the comparatively balance between Chinese (or Chinese culture) and English (or Western culture). Thirdly, sugarcoated translation can be achieved through some translation methods like supplement, re-creation, paraphrase and so on.In postcolonial context, sugarcoated translation can keep the particularity of Chinese culture without affecting the communication between China and the western world. In this thesis, through the analysis of sugarcoated translation, especially the sugarcoated translation of culture-loaded words, the author finds that sugarcoated translation can mark the distinctiveness of Chinese culture from the junction of Chinese culture and western culture. Speaking from a wider aspect, sugarcoated translation can also be used in the cross-cultural communication and translation to spread our Chinese culture, and it can also act as a kind of resistance to the western culture to avoid the possible cultural hegemony.