A Study On Chinese Translations Of China Men From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

Nida put forward the concept of functional equivalence, also known as dynamic equivalence, in his book Toward a Science of Translating. He distinguished functional equivalence from formal equivalence and emphasized that good translations are supposed to produce the functional equivalence instead of the rigid formal equivalence. Regarding the readers’ response as the standard for judging translation, he defined functional equivalence as “the relationship between receptor and language should be substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message”(Nida, 2004: 76). Functional equivalence theory stresses the message transfer of the source text, i.e. the reproduction of the meanings and styles in the original text. Nida’s translation theories were introduced to China in 1980 s when they were advocated as the authoritative theories. With time passing by, his theories began to be criticized by some researchers in the academic circle. One of the questions Functional Equivalence theory was faced with is its feasibility when used in literature translation. However, Nida kept perfecting his Functional Equivalence theory in order to keep advancing with the times and enlarged its range of application. The increasing number of publications about the application of Functional Equivalence theory inflects the researchers’ concern about this theory, which also proves its feasibility. Based on this academic background, the thesis tries to apply Nida’s Functional Equivalence theory in the translation research of China Men, a Chinese American masterpiece.Chinese American literature is one of the integral parts of American literature and the peculiarity of Chinese American writers’ identity determines the unique characteristics of their works. As one of the greatest representatives of Chinese American literature, Maxine Kingston’s China Men has academic value for literature research in many ways. According to the data collected from CNKI database, most studies on China Men are focused on the cultural hybridity, feminism and post-colonialism reflected from the book, but there are comparatively few studies on its translation. This thesis tries to examine the translation of China Men from the perspective of functional equivalence. Functional Equivalence theory has a top-down translation process which includes the analysis of the source text, the transfer of the message in the source text, the restructuring of lexemes, syntax and discourse in the target text, and the testing of readers’ response. One of the preliminary factors which must first be considered is the nature of the source text. For this reason, the distinct features of China Men, such as the hybridity in language and culture, the writer’s post-modernist writhing styles and the multiple themes are analyzed through the quantitative research and qualitative analysis. A small-scale quantitative research of the chapter “the father from America” is made to show the transfer of the thematic meanings in the two translation versions, from which, the functional equivalence produced in the two versions is inferred. According to Nida, meanings are divided into lexical meanings, grammatical meanings and rhetorical meanings with designative and associative levels. Apart from that, source texts may be excellent in style or culturally specific, which determines translators’ justice to the associative meanings in translation. Based on that, a lot of examples are examined to analyze the reproduction of meaning equivalence, style equivalence and cultural equivalence involving the back-translation of Chinese Cultural elements in the two translation versions of China Men. At last, the strategies for China Men and other Chinese American literature works are summed up from the perspective of functional equivalence. Firstly, translators must have the comprehensive historical background knowledge of Chinese American literature to avoid the misunderstandings. After that, proper nouns in Chinese American literature need dynamic and flexible translations, including the applying the accepted corresponding expressions and the back-translation of some Chinese proper names. Besides, annotations should be applied as cultural compensation in the foreignization of western cultural element and the domestication of Chinese cultural elements.