Challenges In Understanding The Real Message In Chinese Political Texts And Practical Solutions For Translators

As China is enhancing its international communication and improving its ways of telling the China story in a better and more effective manner,translation of Chinese political texts into other languages(specifically,English is the case discussed in this thesis)has become an increasingly significant part of the effort to make China's voice better heard across the world.Different types of expressions with Chinese characteristics make it difficult for translators to understand the real message behind the wording in Chinese political texts.This paper aims to identify the challenges in understanding the real message in Chinese political texts and tentatively offer practical solutions for translators.Based on a case study of a Chinese-English translation project,the translation of a Chinese book entitled The Great Way of China,the author discusses the differences between language-reading and message-reading,which the author believes have caused typical mis-reading and mis-translating of such Chinese texts.The paper identifies four types of challenges in understanding the real message in the discussed texts,analyses the possible reasons that have made it difficult for translators to understand and translate the real message,and tentatively provides practical solutions for both understanding and translating the real message intended to be delivered in the source texts.The author hopes this research help improve future English translations of Chinese political texts.