Investigating Translation Of Sichuan Cuisine From The Perspective Of Functionalist Skopos Theory

Chinese culture with its long history is extensive and profound. Among these,the most representative of the Chinese culture is the food culture. Owing to itsspecificality in Chinese eight cuisines, Sichuan cuisine has been enjoying the greatpopularity. Meanwhile, it also reflects the local traditions and customs of Sichuanprovince through its unique way, which has made Sichuan cuisine to be the mostrepresentative member in the regional culture. Despite all this, there are still manyforeigners do not know what they ate at last after having tasted these deliciouscuisines. Therefor, translators must show correct and excellent translation, who stillhave long way to go with so many unaccountable translations.Functionalist skopos theory was born in the1970s, it has4famousrepresentatives, they are Katharina Reiss; Hans J. Vemeer; Justa Holz-M ntt ri andChristiane Nord. In this thesis, the author surveys nowadays English translation ofSichuan cuisine under the perspective of the theory, and obtains the translatingmethods as well as the problems which all the translators should pay attention to inEnglish translating through analyzing the features of Sichuan cuisine and therelationships between the theory and Sichuan cuisine as well as the guidance fromthe theory to the English translation of Sichuan cuisine.First of all, the thesis obtains the characteristics and modes of naming throughthe analysis of cultural and linguistic characteristic in Sichuan cuisine. They are thedoctrine of the golden mean and balance of expression; aesthetic terminology; theconcept of the harmony between the heaven and man; the cuisines named accordingto inventors’ names; the cuisines named according to historical stories and legends;the cuisines named by classical cultural cities and beauty spots and the cuisines with dialectical features. Moreover, the paper also gains other naming bases for Sichuancuisine through the characteristics of its craftsmanship. They are the regionalcharacteristical ingredients，the regional characteristical flavourings and a widerange of cooking methods. After that, the study presents the methods of the Englishtranslation of Sichuan cuisine: transliteration, literal translation, liberal translation,explanatory translation and translation scheme on the basic of the Reiss’s texttypology theory and Vermeer’s skopos theory. In the end, the paper puts forwardsome problems which are needed to notice in English translation.In short, the study has its vital significance to the English translation of theSichuan cuisine, it is to make it has both Chinese characteristics and English lastingappeal.