Research On The Cultural Factors In English Commentaries Of Relics In Museums From The Perspective Of Cross-cultural Communications

China, due to its profound history and splendid culture, attracts tourists from all over the world to savor the special charm and glamour of this ancient country. Among its various kinds of tourism spots, sites of cultural relics which are the best embodiment of the development of the Chinese civilization and unique charm of Chinese culture are the first choices for many foreign tourists. However, different cultural environments, unique cognitive and aesthetical angles are main factors that will hinder foreign audiences' understanding and appreciation of those cultural relics. Thus the multi-language interpretation for cultural exhibits properly serves as a resolution for this situation.Nevertheless, whether the translation of the English commentaries being used relics' interpretation can perfectly and completely convey the cultural information and their special symbolic meanings to the target listeners or not becomes another problem which is worth further discussions and urgent resolutions. Shaanxi History Museum, as a nation-level museum, which carries the historical civilization of the ancient capital of thirteen dynasties, is a typical representative of China's long history and brilliant culture. It attracts a large number of foreign tourists to visit it every year. Thus more efforts should be made in the translation of English commentaries to cater to the needs of the tourist.This paper, starting from the macro background of cross cultural communication, taking the German Skopos theory as a guide, grounded on the theory of cultural default and translation compensation principle, clarifies the definition of interpreter and interpretation for cultural relics and makes comparison between general literary works and the commentaries for relics in museums and summarizes the similarities and differences. Taking some typical exhibits of Shaanxi History Museum for example, based on the English commentaries currently being used in museum, the paper attentively analyses and studies the Chinese cultural symbols and characteristics embodied in this part of the cultural relics, then uses the specific cases to illustrate various problems appeared in the commentaries, such as the disparity of aesthetical perspective, information inadequacy or misleading and information vacancy etc.At last, from both the macro perspective, such as cultivating culture awareness and enhancing the professional translation skills, and the micro perspective, such as strengthening the management and the training of interpreters for cultural relics in museum, this paper offers a few of constructive and feasible suggestions to deal with these problems. Meanwhile, it makes clear that when doing the translation of cultural relics, the translator should adhere to the correct attitude that gives full consideration to the target readers but at the same time, not excessively caters to their preferences, and strive to achieve objective and complete presentation of cultural value and historical significance of cultural relics.