C-E Translation Of Tourist Materials At Scenic Spots In Qingdao: A Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Nowadays, China’s tourism develops rapidly and it has become a pillarindustry for the Chinese economy. As an important coastal city, Qingdao has greattourism potential. In order to promote the growth of Qingdao’s economy, andstrengthen the communication between China and other countries, the translation oftourist materials must be further standardized.The author collects various English versions of Qingdao tourist materials, andanalyzes these materials from the perspective of functional Skopos theory. The authorfinds that there are many problems in the translation of Qingdao tourist materials,which can be divided into three types: linguistic, pragmatic and cultural errors. Withthe methods of case study and comparative analysis, the author believes thattranslators should take the text’s informative function, vocative function as well ascultural differences between China and west countries into sufficient considerationwhen translating tourist materials.Most of the previous scholars studied the translation of tourist materials onlyfrom functional Skopos theory, text features of tourist materials or cultural elements.They separated these three aspects, which lacks comprehensiveness. However, thisthesis combines these three aspects, and regards functional Skopos theory as itstheoretical basis. It takes account of the informative and vocative functions of touristmaterials, cultural differences between China and west countries, analyzes errorsexisting in the translation of materials at scenic spots, and finally poses appropriatetranslating methods in different cases, such as literal translation, literal translation withexplanation and free translation, etc.. The study shows that functional Skopos theory isa theory with extensive application, which opens up a new perspective for thetranslation of tourist materials.