A Report On The Translation Of Ningxia Cuisine(Excerpt) Under The Guidance Of Functional Equivalence Theory

Ningxia, as the settlement of Hui minority, has its special cuisine and special catering culture filled with ethnic features. The ethnic Ningxia cuisine, which is characterized by Hui people’s cuisine, is an important part of Chinese cuisine. Because of the location, the delicious and special cuisine of Ningxia is hardly known by the foreign tourists. It becomes much more important for Ningxia to show the special catering culture to the world. As one of a series for introducing Ningxia, the source-text book, Ningxia Cuisine, gives us a brief introduction to Ningxia’s eating habits and catering culture. Ningxia’s catering culture will give a great promotion to the local customs and culture. So this book has a significant social and cultural value to be translated, which makes this Chinese-English translation practice meaningful.This translation practice is part of Ningxia Cuisine, which mainly covers the translation of dish names, cooking methods and related proverbs. The difficulties lie in the translation of dish names and proverbs, because this is the basis of understanding Ningxia’s catering culture. This translation report will firstly introduce the translation process. Secondly, it will illustrate and summarize the skills and methods for translating the name of dishes and the proverbs related to eating culture in Ningxia Cuisine under the guidance of Functional Equivalence Theory in detail with examples.Functional Equivalence Theory, which is the theoretical guidance of this translation report, requires that the translation should not only deliver the information but also produce the same effect on the target audience as the original does on the source reader, which has great significance in guiding the translation of the dish names and proverbs. Moreover, from this translation practice, the translator learns that a translator should not only master the source language and culture besides of the basic theoretic knowledge and translation skills, but also be familiar to the target language and culture. With a skillful combination with the two languages and their culture, a translator can produce a "functional equivalent" translation and narrow the understanding gaps between the source and target texts caused by the difference in culture.