| Since the Opium War in1840, the closed old China was invaded by western powers. During the late1800s and early1900s, the Qing government was forced to sign more than thirty unequal Treaties with Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Austria. The old China was losing her due integral sovereignty and national dignity as an independent country. Many reformers and revolutionists stood up for saving their motherland from subjection. Various movements were held such as the Western Movement, Hundred Days of Reform, Boxer Rebellion, the Constitutionalist Movement etc. but these Movements were not successful. The Revolutionists headed by Sun Yat-sen, in order to restore China, established the Chinese United League, spreading the thoughts of democratic revolution across the country, led series of armed uprisings against the Qing dynasty. On Oct.10,1911(the Xinhai year in Chinese Lunar Calendar), the Revolutionary Groups in Hubei Wenxue She, Gongjing Hui, on the guidance of Sun Yat-sen’s democratic revolutionary thinking and guidelines of the Chinese United League, fired the first shot. In Wuchang Uprising, with Hubei New Army as main force, founded the government and elected Li Yuanhong as the governor, and the Revolution broke out throughout the whole country. On Jan.1912Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated as the interim President of the Republic of China in Nanking and the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China was enacted by Nanking interim government. On Feb.1912the Qing Emperor announced abdication, indicating the end of monarchy despotism for more than2000years in China, and the Republic of China was founded.2011met the one hundred anniversary of the1911Revolution, and the Museum of1911Revolution was built so as to commemorate the Revolution achievement at the south of Shouyi Square in Wuchang, Hubei. More than700historical photographs and over700precious relics are displayed in the Museum, the publicity materials in the Museum are bilingual in Chinese and English.These English materials are convenient for foreign visitors to know China at that time. Meanwhile, they are the important medium to publicize Chinese history. However, the author read the translation of the Museum, there are some problems in the translation, which fail to satisfy the needs and the interest of foreign tourists.Due to the fact that materials of Museum are special text combing Chinese history and the contemporary audience, which require unique translation principles and strategies, through reviewing Nida’s Functional Equivalence and probing into it deeply, the author holds that Nida’s Functional Equivalence is very instructive and effective in Chinese-English translation of the text of museums. In order to transfer information and attract foreign tourists, the translation of the Museum text should be reader-oriented and worked from target reader’s perspective and fulfilled the demand of the target readers. From this perspective, Nida’s theory focuses on the receptor-oriented and put the target reader’s response as the top priority. As Nida points out,"Translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of the source message, first in terms of meaning, and secondly in terms of style".(Nida,2004:12). In this sense, Nida’s theory is a good theoretical foundation for studying the translation of museum texts. The result of it will be great significant and assistant to the translation in existing problems and creating better translation versions. On the basis of the above analysis, the dissertation gives some feasible translation methods for translating the materials of thel911Revolution Museum. |
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