On Achieving Cultural Equivalence In Translation—A Translation Report On China Dolls

This MTI translation report focuses on analyzing approaches the translator adopts in the translation of three chapters of China Dolls in an attempt to discuss how to achieve cultural equivalence in translation.China Dolls, from which chapter one and chapter two in part one and chapter 4 in part two are taken as the source text, is a novel written by Lisa See, a Chinese American woman writer. The three chapters tell the growing story narrated by one of the main characters, Grace. In the content of these three chapters, the writer uses extensive images to express hidden feelings and there are abundant culture-specific connotations in the narration, which makes it difficult to achieve cultural equivalence in translating the concerning three chapters.By examining and analyzing typical examples in the translation, this MTI translation report compares approaches of domestication and foreignization and analyzes three strategies of foreignization-amplification, transliteration with classificatory words and following the original syntactic order. It suggests that foreignization, especially following the original syntactic order is more effective in achieving cultural equivalence in translating the concerning three chapters.