Studies On C-E Translation Of Cultural Relics Texts In Museums

The Hangzhou G20 Summit in 2016 has once again made China the world spotlight.To learn more about China,an increasing number of foreign visitors will come to China for travel.By visiting Chinese museums,foreign visitors can learn the profound Chinese culture,so the C-E translation of the cultural relics texts,especially of those with Chinese culture-loaded information,becomes particularly important.Nowadays,many museums in China have begun to provide the translation of cultural relics texts.However,for one reason or another,there are still some problems and failures in museums’ C-E translation of cultural relics texts.After an overview on the previous studies of translation of cultural relics texts,it is found that these researches are focused on three aspects:(1)the criteria of translation,that is Xin(faithfulness),Da(expressiveness)and Ya(elegance),as well as the principles of smoothness and faithfulness;(2)the feasible approaches and solutions to translation;(3)error analysis in cultural relics text translation.Besides,the previous researches were conducted mainly from the linguistic or theoretical perspective.Chinese and English belong to different language systems.Besides,the immense cultural differences make it a thorny problem to provide qualified translated texts.Often non-profit,the museums are open to the public and many foreigners choose Chinese museums as one of their destinations while travelling around China.The cultural relics texts in museums contain abundant information on Chinese history,geography,culture,customs,education,technology,craft,development and so on.The function of providing translated texts is to help the audience acquire more knowledge and gain better experiences while enjoying Chinese cultural heritage.Besides,it is of great benefit to spread Chinese culture and customs and develop tourism.Based on the purpose of translated texts and their informative,expressive and operative functions,the author chooses Skopos Theory as the theoretical foundation.After collection of sufficient translated texts,this paper discusses the relevant translation issues from the position of cross-cultural context.Based on field research,it summarizes some commonly-seen failures in translation.Basically,the research findings show that the translation errors in the C-E translation of cultural relics texts can be divided into two types:the ones arise from non-linguistic factors such as lack of information and deficiency of information;and those caused by cultural or linguistic factors centering on inexactness,inconsistency,unfaithfulness and deletion of key information.Under the cross-cultural context,the author summarizes some feasible solutions to the translation problems mentioned above.In terms of non-linguistic factors,the translation of cultural relics texts deserves special attention from local government and relevant departments.Besides,those who are responsible for the translation have to sit for specially designed examinations and receive professional training before they become qualified translators.As for the cultural or linguistic factors,the author puts forward some practicable translation methods in the light of Skopos Theory,flexible application of which can effectively realize the function of the museums’ cultural relic texts and reach the intended communicative purpose.