A Study On The Variation In The English Translation Of Chinese Corporate Profiles Based On Cultural Dimensions Theory

With the development of economic globalization, more and more Chinese companies enter the international market. As the medium for customers to know a company, corporate profiles play an irreplaceable role in the company publicity. Nowadays the bilingual corporate profiles in Chinese and English can be found on the official websites of many Chinese companies. And the corporate profiles in English have become an effective way to establish a good company image and promote the global business of the company. Therefore, the importance of the C-E translation of corporate profiles is increasingly prominent. The translation of Chinese corporate profiles aims to make the target readers know the products and services of the company so as to expand the potential customers abroad and improve the share in the international market. To achieve this goal, translators should have a good understanding of the differences between Chinese and English both in language and culture. The translation is made according to the target culture in order to realize the purpose of publicity. Therefore, considering the special needs of the target readers and the achievement of maximum economic benefits, translation variation is widely used in the C-E translation of corporate profiles at present.Translation variation is a unique cultural phenomenon. Different from the complete translation which strives to input all the information of the source text in the translated text, translation variation selects information from the original text and changes the form of the original text so as to satisfy the special needs of the target readers. Complete translation sometimes may lead to cultural conflicts or contradictions, while translation variation can solve the contradictions between different cultures. The difference between Chinese and western culture is the motivation and cause of translation variation. Translation variation can overcome the cultural barriers and shorten the cultural gap so that the translated text can be better accepted by the target readers. The adoption of variation in the C-E translation of corporate profiles also takes the differences between Chinese and English culture into account. The target readers of the English translation of Chinese corporate profiles are mostly the customers in English culture. Therefore, translators must understand and grasp the cultural differences between China and the major English-speaking countries. Variation should be adopted in the C-E translation of corporate profiles in order to make the translated text conform to the needs and the acceptance habits of the readers.In this thesis the author combines Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory with Huang Zhonglian’s translation variation theory to study the variation in the English translation of Chinese corporate profiles. Hofstede defines five cultural dimensions to describe the cultural differences which are the motivations to the translation variation and explain the necessity of translation variation. The five dimensions are:power distance, collectivism versus individualism, masculinity versus femininity, and uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation and short-term orientation. As a methodology, translation variation theory guides the variation in the C-E translation of corporate profiles. The purpose of variation is to make the translation conform to the target culture and the acceptance habits of the target readers. Therefore, the translator needs to recognize the differences between Chinese and western culture in the process of the C-E translation of corporate profiles. The domestication strategy is suggested in translation variation. And the translation variation should follow the principle of loyalty, reader-centeredness and culture-orientation. Approaches like edition, deletion and adaptation can be adopted in translation variation.