A Comparative Study Of Culturally-loaded Words In Two Chinese Versions Of Moment In Peking

With the constant development of studies on translation theory and practice,translators and scholars are aware of the relationship of translation studies with otherdisciplines, especially culture. Culture, as a social and historical phenomenon, has playeda more and more essential role in globalization and cross-cultural communication.Culture and translation have close relationship with each other. Susan Bassnett, a leadingfigure of Cultural School in translation studies field, is the first one who pointed out thattranslation should take “cultural turn” and supplied a new approach to translation studiesfrom the perspective of culture. She expounded her cultural translation theory in the bookTranslation, History and Culture explicitly.Lin Yutang is a bilingual writer both in Chinese and English. His fluency andproficiency in language contribute to his proficient works and bridge the gap ofcommunication between China and west. Moment in Peking is Lin Yutang’s mostrepresentative and renown original English work. It narrates vicissitudes of life, the painsand sorrows of three families of great renowned (Zeng, Yao and Niu) and introducesChinese glorious culture to western readers by a nuanced description.Culturally-loaded words are the carrier of culture and reflect culture of one nationdirectly. There are plentiful culturally-loaded words in Moment in Peking. Appropriateand effective translation of these culturally-loaded words is of great importance.This thesis is a comparison of similarities and differences in translation strategies of culturally-loaded words between two Chinese versions of Moment in Peking from theperspective of cultural translation theory. By linking theory with practice, this thesisarrives at a conclusion that culture，translation and language are strongly interlinked inthe process of in translation studies and Susan Bassnett’s cultural translation theory hasstrong guiding significance for translation studies, especially for translation studies ofculturally-loaded words. On translation of Moment in Peking, Zhang Zhenyu adopteddomestication, free translation, omitted translation and transplanting and his versionlanguage tended to be modern. However, Yu Fei adopted literal translation. His translatedversion was more faithful to the original and employed many footnotes. His translationlanguage met the standard of Beijing spoken language.