E-C Translation Of Skincare Product Instructions From The Perspective Of Reception Theory

The purpose of this paper is to research the Chinese translation of English skincare product instructions from the perspective of Reception Theory. Nowadays there are many translation problems in Chinese translation of English skincare product instructions, such as terminology translation errors, improper handling of long sentences, mistakes in cultural taboos translation and translation violating laws and regulations of target language country. The reasons for the problems are translators’ lack of solid bilingual ability, weakness of cultural awareness, negligence of Chinese readers’aesthetic expectation and inappropriate adoption of translation methods. The differences between Chinese and English languages and cultures lead to many difficulties in translating English skincare product instructions. Dealing with these difficulties, predecessors make the Skopos theory as a guiding theory. The author of this paper holds that the target language readers should be given more attention and be put in important position. Based on this point, the author attempts to study it from the perspective of Reception Theory.Reception Theory puts emphasis on the reader and attaches great importance to the significant role of the readers, thus providing a new perspective for the future translation studies. The main viewpoints of Reception Theory include "horizons of expectation","indeterminacies of text","readers’ responses theory" and "vocative structure", etc. Translation of skincare product instructions is not only a language decoding process, but also a process involving target culture, aesthetic psychology, and so on. Hence, the translation of skincare product instructions should conform to the target-language conventions. Meanwhile, due to different histories, culture, values and thinking patterns between Chinese and foreigners, the translation of skincare product instructions has to conform to the target language receptive standards and aesthetic psychology to arouse Chinese consumers’ interest in the products and purchase the products finally.As is known, the language of skincare product instructions would not exist without readers. Therefore, translation of skincare product instructions should follow three principles in line with the Reception Theory:conforming to the target language readers’ expectation, conforming to the target language readers’aesthetics and conforming to target-language culture. Under the guidance of the above three principles, this thesis has also discussed specific translation methods, such as literal translation for ingredients, directions and notes; free translation for product introduction; addition of necessary information for better understanding; adaptation to the cultural gaps and deletion of unimportant parts. At last, there is a case study based on one series of English skincare product instructions. The translation problems are analyzed and the revised translation version by the author is advanced. Then, it comes to the conclusion that it is useful to apply the Reception Theory to the translation of skincare product instructions.