Strategy Of Chinese To English Translation Of University Web Profiles: A Genre-based Approach

The English web profiles of universities in China serve to display positivecampus image overseas. Majority of English profiles serve as the translated versionsof their Chinese originals. Recent years have seen a rising trend towards the study ofC-E translation of this genre-type, with a special focus on translation strategy andspecific methods. Relevant studies have been conducted from multi-perspectives.However, genre-based attempts in this domain have seldom been approached.This thesis attempts to explore the working overall strategy and specificmethods guiding C-E translation of university profiles based on a comparative genreanalysis of forty Chinese and American sample discourses. The analysis is restrictedto move structures and linguistic features within Bhatia’s genre research framework.The study reveals that profiles written in two languages share the similarcommunicative purposes, but differ in that Chinese texts show a university-centeredtendency in move-step distribution, where American counterparts always providethose that readers are more concerned with, e.g., tuition and fees, financial aid andcontact information. Syntactically, the former frequently use long sentences todescribe campus facts, while the brief lines and the structure of noun phrasesfollowed by figures are preferred in the latter. Lexico-grammatically, Americandiscourses is characterized by the frequent use of first and second person pronouns,which are rarely noticed in Chinese literatures.Based on above findings, this research argues that Chinese university profilesshould be reproduced in a style conforming to the native English genre conventions.Furthermore, specific translation methods on move structural and linguistic levelsare suggested. The present study is expected to contribute methodologically to theteaching and practice in the field of the C-E translation of university web profiles.