A Study Of Translation Of Chinese Introductions To Tourist Attractions From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

Tourism contributes immensely to China’s economic growth and facilitates cultural exchanges. Nowadays, more and more foreign tourists are attracted to China by her brilliant culture with a5000-year history. Therefore, it is of great significance to translate tourism texts from Chinese into English. However, there are obvious problems in this kind of translation, hence the need to conduct this study.First, this thesis presents the research background, research questions, research methods, significance of the study, and structure of the thesis, before it provides a brief review of major researches on translation of tourism texts at home and abroad, including a short survey of Nida’s theory and its relevant studies. Next, under the guidance of Nida’s Functional Equivalence (FE), the thesis analyzes the main different characteristics of Chinese and English tourism texts before it explains their reasons. Then, guided by FE, the thesis proves the feasibility of application of such major translation strategies as transliteration, literal translation and liberal translation to translation of Chinese introductions to tourist attractions. Afterwards, it proves that Nida’s FE is feasible or suitable for translation of Chinese introductions to tourist attractions. It is an important yardstick for evaluating the translation by judging whether the target readers understand and accept the versions and whether the major functions of language are realized. Finally, the thesis summarizes the major findings and mentions the limitations and future study aspects.This study is intended to improve the quality of translation of Chinese ITA so as to attract more foreign tourists to tour China and promote Chinese culture.