Reframing Narratives In English To Chinese News Translation Of South China Sea Disputes

As tensions in the south China sea increased in recent years,this region has become the strategic focus of China,US and the neighboring countries.News translation about south China sea disputes plays an important role in getting domestic and international support.This thesis focuses on the the Chinese translations related to south China sea disputes in Reference News and Global Times and its original English versions to study how the translator re-framed the narratives encoded in the source reports during selecting and translating process from the perspective of Mona Baker's narrative theory by introducing and applying the main concepts “translation”,“conflict”,“ narrative” and “frame”.The thesis is comprised of five parts.Introduction discusses the relation between south China sea disputes and translation,putting forward research questions and approach.This part also includes an overview of research status,clarifying purpose and significance of this study.Chapter one is an brief introduction of the theoretical basis of this study--Mona Baker's narrative theory,including features and a typology of narrative related to the present study.Besides,some major translation strategies as to how to frame narratives in translation is also presented.Chapter two explores how translator selects news from foreign media by contrasting the news reports related to south china sea disputes in Reference News and Global Times and the online website of the New York Times.Chapter three investigates how and why the translator reframe the original narratives and the influence on readers.Conclusion summarizes the reasons of narrative framing behavior in news translation and findings of this paper,clarifying significance of this study.Given the significance of news reports of south China sea disputes,it is found that Reference News and Global Times tends to select and translate news which hold positive or neutral attitudes toward China's position in the south China sea and exclude news which question China's claims to sovereignty over the South China Sea.As to specific reframing strategies,selective appropriation of textual material,including omission and addition are frequently made in news translation.Then,labeling devices,such as rival systems of naming,as well as reframing titles,are also used by translators as two particularly powerful means of framing.In addition,the paper finds that translators also employ various strategies to reposition participants toserve their narrative intentions,for example,explicit indications of the source media,changes of pictures and shifts of wording.Lastly,all the reframing behaviors in news translation is actually affected by the sponsor and national political ideology.This thesis reveals that news translation is actually the renarration of source discourse and enriches narrative theory and studies from this perspective by investigating news translation related to south China sea disputes.