On Translation Of Chinese Culturally-loaded Terms From The Perspective Of Venuti’s Foreignization

With the development of Chinese culture, a special kind of word comes into being.This kind of word embodies rich national culture, and reflects Chinese cultural values,history, religion, customs, thinking patterns and life styles etc. We call these words“culturally-loaded terms”. This kind of word has both referential meanings andconnotative meanings. They are the microcosm of a certain nation and play a key role intransmitting Chinese culture. Translating these words properly by crossing the culturaldivide between the east and the west is conducive to helping English readers learn moreabout China and plays a vital role in promoting Chinese culture to the outside world.This thesis is aimed at studying Chinese culturally-loaded terms from theperspective of Venuti’s foreignization theory. Through the analysis of materials related,the author discusses the translation strategies and skills employed by the translatorswhile translating the Chinese culturally-loaded terms from Dawn Blossoms Plucked atDusk. Venuti’s foreignization theory aims to reveal the linguistic and culturaldifferences of the original and to resist the dominant cultural values. It advocatestranslated texts that are not transparent, the visibility of the translator as well as theheterogeneity of the original; Besides, foreignization does not mean word-for-wordtranslation. Instead, it means to associate both the translated text with the culturaldiscourse and the theory and practice of translation with the value orientation. Therefore,foreignization theory belongs to both theories of translation studies and theories ofcultural studies. Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk is the only collection of proseswritten by Lu Xun which centers on his own life experiences. However, it has receivedrelatively little attention and even less attention has been paid to the English translationof the Chinese culturally-loaded terms in it. This thesis chooses Dawn BlossomsPlucked at Dusk translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang as the research object.According to the five cultural elements, the author classifies the culturally-loaded termsinto five categories, namely ecological culturally-loaded terms, materialculturally-loaded terms, social culturally-loaded terms, religious culturally-loaded termsand linguistic culturally-loaded terms. Then, a thorough statistical and comparativeanalysis has been made. According to the analysis, the translators mainly employ thetranslation strategies which express the heterogeneity of the source text by placing foreignization first and domestication second. The main translation methods include:literal translation, literal translation plus annotation, transliteration, transliteration plusannotation, free translation, free translation plus annotation and substitution. The authorillustrates these translation methods with some typical translated examples and makesthe conclusion that the translated version contributes to cultural reconstruction and fullyreproduces the cultural characteristics of the original. The translation strategies andmethods employed by the translators manifest both the linguistic and culturaldifferences. Finally we will be able to achieve “considerations of sides” and the mostacceptable “connection” of both sides, obtaining “appropriateness” in translation.Besides, the translators have properly handled the boundaries between domesticationand foreignization which is helpful to make the translated text more faithful to theoriginal. It serves the purpose of the construction of Chinese national culture and theprotection of world cultural diversity.The thesis consists of six chapters. The first chapter is introduction, including theresearch background, significance and research methods. The second chapter isliterature review which summarizes studies on Chinese culturally-loaded terms both athome and abroad. The third part is theoretical framework which elaborates Venuti’sforeignization theory. The fourth chapter analyzes the translation of Chineseculturally-loaded terms. The fifth chapter is a case study of the Chineseculturally-loaded terms from Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk. The sixth chapter is theconclusion part which sums up the main contributions, its limitations as well as somesuggestions for future studies.