A Case Study Of The Chinese Version Of Two Visits To The Tea Countries Of China And The Britain Tea Plantations In Himalaya From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

China has witnessed rapid development over the years,and we Chinese ought to view,not only the rest of the world,but also our nation itself from a more open-minded perspective.As in the cultural aspect,while so much effort is given to translate western works,overseas books on sinology also deserve our attention.Two Visits to the Tea Countries of China and the British Tea Plantations in the Himalaya(hereinafter referred to as Two Visits),in which the author Robert Fortune recorded his two trips to China after the Opium Wars,enables us to know what China was like in late Qing Dynasty in the eyes of a foreigner.This thesis,based on the Skopos theory,uses its three basic principles to investigate the translation strategies and techniques applied by the translator of Two Visits on lexical and syntactic levels.The author comes to the following findings after a close examination of the translation:In the first place,the Skopos theory proves to be practical in the translation of travel memoirs;Secondly,the purpose of the translation,which ought to be determined beforehand,should be given top priority when the translator weighs up different translation strategies and techniques such as annotation,literal translation,inversion translation etc.Moreover,travel memoirs often contain a large number of culture-loaded texts,whose translation demands cross-culture awareness and careful consideration of target readers' cognitive ability.Lastly,travel memoirs often contain a wide range of information and knowledge,which presents huge challenges to the translator.To produce good translation,translators are required to be responsible,patient,and meticulous in investigation and research,continually improving their cognitive ability and expanding their knowledge.Two Visits has only one Chinese version without any research on Ao's translated book.Thus,this thesis fills the gap and offers reference for the translation of travel memoirs and future research on the Chinese translation of Two Visits.