A Translation Report On Architectural Landscape In Ming And Qing Dynasties

With its fast economic development, the splendid culture and abundant tourist resources of China have drawn more visitors. China has become one of the most popular targeted countries for international travels in recent years. Tourist sites, especially architectural landscapes, have gained reputation among people. As a result, translations of such texts play an increasingly role in tourist development.This translation practice is based on the translation of the cultural landscape texts, which is a cross-language and cross-culture interaction. Architectural landscape texts pose challenges to translation in that they are often heavily loaded with historical and cultural information. Moreover, English and Chinese tourist texts share quite different stylistic features and expressive habits, thus, accuracy of information transmission is of prime importance in translating of architectural landscape. One must take both original text and target readers’expectation into consideration. Therefore, this translation practice is conducted in the light of Skopos Theory, which lay stress both on target readers’ response and the realization of intended function of the original text. Under the guidance of Skopos Theory, providing substantial information and attracting visitors to pay a visit are two main functions of translating of tourism texts.This report is based on the author’s own translation of the architectural landscape texts in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It first offers a brief introduction of the background, objectives, significance of this translation practice. Then current research status of tourist translation and the guiding theory are introduced in chapter two. Chapter three is about a detailed description of this translation task., the author undergoes the difficulties she has encountered during this translation practice. In chapter five, the author elaborates on translation strategies in combination with case studies. Among which, amplifications, omissions, transliteration, restructuring and other translation strategies are analyzed on the basis of examples. In the last part, author makes a conclusion to this translation practice and shares her gains and losses. It is hoped that the report will provide some references to similar studies.