On Achieving Cultural Equivalence In Translation-a Translation Report On Fresh Off The Boat:A Memoir

This MTI translation report focuses on analyzing approaches the translator adopts in the translation of two chapters of Fresh Off the Boat:A Memoir in an attempt to discuss how to achieve cultural equivalence in translation.Fresh Off the Boat:A Memoir, from which Chapter3and Chapter5are taken as the source text, is an autobiography of Eddie Huang, a second-generation Chinese American writer. The content of these two chapters ranges from food, music to sports and movie, full of distinctive style and strong cultural atmosphere. As a more bi-lingual and bi-culture literature work, this book contains much more culture-specific words, which makes it more difficult to achieve cultural equivalence.By enumerating and analyzing typical examples in the translation, this MTI translation report compares approaches of domestication and foreignization and analyzes three strategies of foreignization—literal translation, transliteration with classificatory words and literal translation with annotation. It suggests that foreignization, especially literal translation with annotation is more effective in achieving cultural equivalence.