A Report On The Chinese Translation Of Society In China (Chapter 3 To Chapter 6)

Society in China, written by the English diplomatist Robert K. Douglas, is one of his representative books which introduces China. With 400 pages and 22 pictures, this book gives insights into how complicated and great China was for western readers. More than one hundred years ago, for the western people, this book was a kaleidoscope for them to understand what society in China was all about. As for now, it is an exceptional book for contemporary scholars to study the Chinese history.According to the contents and characteristics of the selected excerpts, these three chapters can fall into the genres of the typical journalese and official documents, which, in a broad sense, can be called the practical genres according to the theory of Professor Sun Zhili. These two genres, when it comes to translation studies, can be examined from the aspect of the Skopos theory, whose task is to make target readers have the same reactions and effects as the source language readers. This theory is taken as the guiding theory in the process of translation, and thus principles of fidelity and finality is complied with. During this process, discussions and inductions are given to the translation skills of names, places, attribute clause, adverbial clause, and so on. Also, deficiencies and areas worthy of reflection are addressed. Meanwhile, the features of the practical genres are also expatiated, and at last but not least the importance of referring to the parallel texts is pointed out.On the one hand, as a piece of translation report, this thesis is not only a summary of the translation process, but also a probe into the translation of the practical genres in the form of translation report. At the same time, this book is a important work of the overseas China studies. On the other hand, the translator indicates how to use the Skopos theory to guide the translation of the practical genres in the general orientation, that is to say, to regard the three principles of the Skopos theory, finality, consistency and fidelity, as the constant guiding principles. These two aspects are the key points of this report. The translator hopes that this report might serve as a reference not only for the study of the translation of the practical genres, but also for the development of the overseas sinology for the subsequent scholars.