A Functionalist Approach To The Translation Of Allusions In Chinese Tourism Texts

Tourism industry has made great progress in China during the past decade, and become one of the pillar industries of China’s national economy. As China’s international influence grows, there will be more and more foreign tourists coming to China. In order to provide better service for foreign tourists and show the variety of tourism resources and unique cultural charm, the translation of Chinese tourism texts is of great importance.There are great differences between Chinese and English tourism texts, one of which is the common use of allusions in Chinese tourism texts. When translating Chinese tourism texts, translators should make the translated version both understandable and acceptable. Therefore, this thesis tries to explore suitable methods to translate the allusions in Chinese tourism texts in light of German functionalist approach and provide reference for translators.This thesis firstly makes a brief introduction to allusions and the translation of allusions, and then reviews the German functionalist theory, including its background, main contents, developments and representative figures in different stages of development, which provides the foundation for later chapters. After that, the author introduces related researches on Chinese and English tourism texts and analyzes the respective features and functions of Chinese and English tourism texts. With Nord’s documentary translation and instrumental translation as the framework, this thesis explores how to apply these two translation processes to the translation of allusions in Chinese tourism texts through case studies. It finally concludes that documentary translation is suitable for informative allusions in Chinese tourism texts, while instrumental translation is applicable to the translation of those allusions with operative functions.