A Comparative Study On English Versions Of Teahouse From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

As an old-line performing art in China, stage play carries a lot of Chinese culture.And stage play is also a way of entertainment that spread quickly and widely.Compared with many other channels to promote Chinese culture, stage play has manyadvantages in promoting Chinese culture. Wo we prefer to choose stage play topromote Chinese culture. Stage play a kind of art which is dialogues oriented. Thedialogues play a very important role in showing plot and characters. So the translationof stage play is main about the translation of dialogues.Teahouse is a masterpiece in the history of Chinese stage play, and also arepresentative work of Lao She in the art of language. Teahouse tells a story thatcrosses three periods of China, and carries a lot of Chinese culture. The dialogues in itare often of Chinese feature and have special meaning. The peculiarity of thedialogues brings a lot of challenges to researchers, but just because of it the dialoguesis of research value.Translation is a kind of activity that transforms one language to another language.When translating stage plays, we should consider the consistency of original text andtarget text, the difference of cultures and the reaction of target readers and audiences.Since no translation is ever completely equivalent, and it is the best to speak of‘functional equivalence’ in terms of a range of adequacy. Functional equivalence isdivided into two levels: the minimal level and the maximal level. A minimal realisticdefinition of functional equivalence is “the readers of a translated text should be ableto comprehend it to the point that they can conceive of how the original readers of thetext must have understood and appreciated it”. And a maximal ideal definition offunctional equivalence is “the readers of a translated text should be able to understandand appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the original readers did”. Thisthesis makes comparative study on two English version of “teahouse” from theperspective of foregrounding. This thesis emphasizes on the importance offoregrounding theory in translating stage play, and analyses what kind of translationskills can achieve adequate foregrounding from any point in translation.