A Study Of Political Vocabulary Translation From Perspective Of "Return To Domestication"with A Case Of China Daily

Since the reform and opening up, China has been exerting more and more influence on the political life of the whole world and communing with more other countries. Thus, the visits of top leaders from different countries have become increasingly frequent; the public diplomacy programs get further strengthened. Because of the particularity of the political documents, the cultural differences between English and Chinese language and the discrepancy among audiences inside and outside, the translation of political documents are much stricter than other types of translations. Once the translation of the political vocabulary is inaccurate, in a narrow way it may bring trouble to the readers understanding, in a broad way it may make the western readers misunderstand China’s national conditions and fundamental policies, which negative effects can never be ignored.Political vocabulary refers to the unique language form of Chinese, including some concepts, political terms, phrases and characteristic words with national features, etc. The translation of these special words belongs to an inseparable part in the translation of political literature. By means of these words, people can fully understand the current conditions and development in China so as to promote the communication and co-operation at home and abroad. However, with the development of the society, vocabulary is changing, too. Therefore, as the process of globalization deepens gradually and international environment turns increasingly more complex, we should pay more careful and rigorous attention to such kind of translation. That is, we should not only concisely grasp the connotation of the original word and adopt expressions based on English translation, but also try to keep words with Chinese characteristics and retain the original cultural connotation. So as to achieve the real equivalence of the target language and the source language from the aspects of meaning, range, emotion, impact and so on. At the same time, some typical vocabulary which was often used in the past but now has already been out of date or translated inaccurately must be amended.From the study of majority of scholars, we can see that, while foreignization is booming, the ignorance of domestication also gradually emerges and causes a great deal of misunderstanding and deficiency. Though foreignization is an inevitable trend during globalization, cultural differences between nations will never disappear. That is to say, to accept foreign cultures, readers need a process that will be set up by domestication as a bridge or media. Although some domestic scholars have been claiming the importance of domestication, in fact there exist lots to be studied.The specific points like authority and compatibility of China Daily make its words studied and referenced fiercely by the scholars and talents from different fields in translation. Especially as a field on the current political vocabulary which is endowed with image of nation, it even needs such a strong and professional material source to support my thesis, which is also the reason that I choose China Daily to do my paper research. Therefore, the purpose of my study is to discuss the translation on political vocabulary with Chinese characteristics involved in China Daily in some ways, such as theoretical research, case study and inductive analysis. By using the main proposition "Return to Domestication", I try to make western countries to have a more profound, precise and effective comprehension of Chinese political vocabulary, thus promote cultural exchange and fusion constantly.Besides Introduction and Conclusion, the paper consists of four parts. In Chapter One, the author reviewed foreign and domestic research in the field of Chinese political vocabulary, definitions, characteristics and classifications and communication between cultures as well as political vocabulary translation in China Daily; in Chapter Two, the author described the theoretical bases of political vocabulary translation, which are foreignization vs domestication, Sapir Whorf hypothesis and high-context culture vs low-context culture; in Chapter Three, the author listed several flaws, which have been accepted by the public, in "the Standard Translation" of China Daily, that is to say."the misunderstanding phenomenon" in the minds of western people. Secondly, the author concluded and summarized the characteristics of political vocabulary (with a distinct features of our time, with a strong political color, with a refined language and with layers of rhetorical devices) and translation strategies (avoid blind translation, avoid biased translation, avoid trouble-eluding translation and avoid beating-about-the-bush translation), then raising some suggestions for translators in this field (language direction, text direction, culture direction and auxiliary direction). Finally, the author kept to the main idea, which visualized and described a blueprint (harmony in diversity and blending&advancing together); in Chapter Four the author illustrated the findings, suggestions and implications. All in all, the main body of the article is to alert myself on the urgence of "Return to Domestication" as well as the large crowd of translators on the co-prosperity and coexistence of western and Chinese cultures, based on the case study of political vocabulary.