A Reprot On The Translation Of Empire Of Things: How We Became A World Of Consumers,From The Fifteenth Century To The Twenty-First(Chapter 8)

This translation report is based on Empire of Things: How We Became a World Consumer from the Fifteenth Century to Twenty-first written by famous consumer historian Frank Trentmann.And the author excerpts Chapter 8 as the translation material.The source text is divided into two parts: the first part is mainly about the history of the rise of the consumerism in different countries from a chronological perspective.And the second part analyses and comments the mass consumption and consumerism in the 20 th century and 21 th century.Chapter Eight made detailed analysis in the three aspects on Asia consumes.By dating back to the story of consumption boom in Asia,the author explores the reasons for the rise of modern consumption.Meanwhile,the changing of the consumers' social identity has prompted the state to formulate corresponding regulations to protect consumers' legitimate rights and interests.As a work of the history of consumption,the source text belongs to the informative text which aims to convey the writers' original information in terms of consumption researches.For that reason,the author takes Peter Newmark's Text Typology as the theoretical basis to guide the translation practice.What's more,the original text is characterized with terms and complex sentences.In order to convey the original information faithfully and accurately,and improve its readability,the author employs the semantic translation and communicative translation.In addition,the author also takes some translation techniques,including amplification,words transformation,literal translation,inverted translation,splitting translation and construction translation in order to crackle down difficult points in the process of translation.Through this translation practice,the author not only develops a good knowledge of consumption,but also improves the translation ability.In fact,it is not easy for a translator to do translation,let alone to do a good translation.To do a functional translation,the translator needs to acquire certain translation theories and techniques,and also make repeated revisions with conscientious attitudes.