On Achieving Functional Equivalence Translation——A Translation Report On Fresh Off The Boat:A Memoir

This MTI translation report looks at the functional equivalence and the free translation strategy to achieve the equivalence in translating the two chapters-Chapter6and Chapter7in Fresh Off the Boat:A Memoir by Eddie Huang, a Chinese American writer. Fresh Off the Boat:A Memoir introduces his growing experience with his friends and his understanding on the music, politics and belief. Due to his special identity as a second generation Chinese American, the book pays more attention to the rebellion of the author, and the language style in the two chapters is filled with complaint, abreaction and impulsion, which the author wants to struggle for the cultural identity or to prove himself to the society.In light of the particularity of this hybrid text, there are cultural differences, contextual conversion as well as the different modes of thinking between the source texts and the target readers, it is, therefore, hard to achieve the functional equivalence without the consideration of the context and it will cause the misunderstanding and misreading during the translation process. By translating the two chapters and analyzing the language features in the source text, this MTI translation report suggests that the free translation approach can be a good way to achieve the functional equivalence in dealing with the hybrid texts in translation.