Difficulties And Strategies In Translating Governmental Administrative Services Related Expressions With Chinese Characteristics

As China becomes increasingly integrated with the rest of the world,more and more texts introducing different aspects of Chinese society are being translated into English,including those texts on Chinese governmental administrative services.Governmental administrative services related expressions with Chinese characteristics,which highlight key features of Chinese governmental administrative services in a very “Chinese” form,constitute an important part of this kind of texts.However,the translation of those expressions usually poses difficulties for translators because of their characteristics.This paper analyzes three key features of governmental administrative services related expressions with Chinese characteristics,namely condensed form,language flexibility and promotional effect.Furthermore,this paper analyzes four difficulties caused by those features,namely identifying the exact meaning of the expressions,paraphrasing the meaning in a concise way,making clear the hidden logical structure and avoiding being misled by the promotional rhetoric.Accordingly,this paper presents four empirical strategies for coping with those difficulties: firstly,using both direct and indirect searching methods to help identify the meaning of the expressions;secondly,determining the content to which an expression should be translated based on the role it play in the context;thirdly,emphasizing logical structure by making clear the subject and object of actions as well as the relationship among different actions;fourthly,highlighting the substantial meaning of the expressions by making them more straightforward.