On The Translation Of Culture-loaded Words In The Subtitles Of A Bite Of China From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

With the implementation of the strategy of Chinese culture “going global”,as a special medium,the audiovisual work,plays an increasingly important role in international publicity and cross-cultural communication,so its translation should also be drawn more and more attention.Being a quite influential culinary documentary of CCTV,A Bite of China,not only reveals the profound traditional Chinese food culture,but shows unique local conditions,customs,geographical features and wisdom of life,which enhances Chinese cultural soft power.This documentary teems with culture-loaded words whose translation is directly related to the audience's comprehension of the documentary and their reception to Chinese culture.At present,previous studies on culture-loaded word translation are mainly focused on literary works and few studies on audiovisual works especially documentaries can be seen.Reception Aesthetics attaches great emphasis to readers' status,aesthetic experiences as well as their response and reception to works,which coincides with the audience-oriented feature of documentaries.Therefore,the thesis intends to do a theoretical research on culture-loaded word translation in A Bite of China from the perspective of Reception Aesthetics so as to provide some theoretical explanations with reference value and practical implications.Based on the theoretical foundation of Reception Aesthetics and with the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods,this thesis conducts a case study of culture-loaded word translation in the first season of A Bite of China,including the analysis of translation process of culture-loaded words,influencing factors during the course,and the statistical analysis of the translator's choice of translation strategies and methods of culture-loaded words for the purpose of meeting the audience's horizon of expectations and accomplishing fusion of horizons.At last,their translation features are analyzed.Through the research,several findings are obtained as follows: Firstly,in the light of Reception Aesthetics,culture-loaded word translation in subtitles is not only a dynamic interaction among the source text,translator and the audience but also a process of fusion of horizons which is not only affected by the general factors of language and culture but influenced by dual specific factors of documentary subtitle translation,namely such limiting factors of subtitle translation as time and space,together with the facilitating factors of documentary text's multimodality.All of them lead to such features of culture-loaded word translation in the documentary as instantaneousness,synchronization,notelessness and conciseness.Secondly,under the influence of those factors,when translating culture-loaded words in the documentary,the translator strives to get close to the audience and pays much attention to their comprehension and receptivity,and achieves desirable fusion of horizons between the source text and the audience through meeting the audience's horizon of expectations,adjusting to their change,keeping appropriate aesthetic distance and taking flexible translation methods.Thirdly,the statistics show that under the influence of multiple factors,in order to cross the barriers of language and culture and to convey cultural connotations,the author adopts more frequently the strategy of domestication(54%)and uses such flexible translation methods as free translation(33%),literal translation(26%),transliteration plus literal translation(11.2%),transliteration(9.2%)and omission(7%).In this way,the translator realizes fusion of horizons between the source text and the audience to the utmost so as to keep the exotic flavor,intelligibility and acceptability of the rendering.For instance,when translating culture-loaded words which will not cause too much barriers of comprehension and the audience can perceive the cultural connotations from the screen,foreignization methods are more likely to be adopted which is conducive not only to keeping the source cultural flavor,but also to meeting even broadening the audience's horizon of expectations.Whereas,the translator tends to adopt typical domestication methods to make sure the translation be understood and accepted.The author believes that Reception Aesthetics can be well applied as guidance in the translation of culture-loaded words in documentary subtitles,and in light of it more ideal renderings can be obtained.Due to the limited time and ability,the research has much room for improvement.Therefore,it is hoped that more and more scholars engage themselves in further study of culture-loaded word translation in Chinese audiovisual works,so as to promote Chinese culture to “go global”.