Selected E-C Translation Of China Mission:A Personal History From The Last Imperial Dynasty To The People's Republic And A Critical Commentary

This project is a selected E-C translation of China Mission: A Personal History from the Last Imperial Dynasty to the People's Republic from the twelfth chapter to the fifth chapter,together with a critical commentary of this translation project.Written by American author Dr.Audrey Ronning Topping,the book was published by the Louisiana State University Press in 2013,and won the prestigious PROZE Award presented by the Association of American Publishers.It is unfolded by her father-Canadian Ambassador Chester Ronning?s experiences from his childhood to growing-up in China,elaborating the life that Chester Ronning spent with his family in China and the contribution that he made to the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Canada.And the four chapters chosen from this book mainly illustrate the ease life and sufferings that Chester Ronning had been through with his family before and after the exploration of the Boxer Uprising.Under the guidance of the Functional Equivalence Theory,the core of Eugene A.Nida?s translation theories,this project employs various translation methods or techniques to achieve four levels of equivalence,namely lexical equivalence,syntactic equivalence,discourse equivalence and stylistic equivalence.To achieve lexical equivalence,extension,conversion and back translation are employed here;to achieve syntactic equivalence,affirmation and negation,division and reinvention are used in this section;to achieve discourse equivalence and stylistic equivalence,synthesis is employed as the main translation method—that is using various translation methods in combination so as to keep smoothness and coherence as target language.The significance of this project lies in three respects.Firstly,through translating this text,translator could generalize a set of rules of her own to translate texts akin by applying the given knowledge into practice in the course of translation,which could also provide a reference to translation practices alike later.Secondly,translating this text could enhance friendship and communication between China and Canada at the realistic level.As the first Westerner to announce the world the foundation of New China in English,Chester Ronning has played a big role in the establishment and development of diplomatic relationship between China and Canada.Therefore,the review on Sino-Canadian relationship today is of great importance,which is in line with the Belt and Road Initiatives proposed by President Xi.Finally,because the text is written by a Canadian,translating this text,therefore,could provide a cross-cultural multi-perspective for Chinese to know what China is like in the eyes of foreigners in those days,and is of value for academic research activities related later as well.