On Thick Translation In Recalling Lost Souls By David Holm

Along with the development of globalization,cultural soft power has become increasingly important in enhancing the overall national strength.Zhuang culture,an indispensable part of Chinese culture,plays a vital role in the process.Recalling Lost Souls is a classic of Zhuang,and this thesis,by taking its English version contributed by David Holm as an example,attempts to study and analyze the phenomenon of thick translation and paratext applied in the process of translating the Zhuang language into English.Recalling Lost Souls by David is more than a translation work,but as a masterpiece of ethnographic translation,it is the result of the author’s painstaking efforts of collecting literature,translating and writing based on decades of fieldwork,and it contains a large number of English translations of the original annotations and his annotations of Zhuang ethnography.Application of thick translation strategy in Recalling Lost Souls can better present and explain the Zhuang ethnic cultural activities,highlighting the value of the original work,meanwhile,it can facilitate the understanding and acceptance of target language readers,helping the world better understand the Zhuang Culture and then the Chinese culture.The thesis argues that,although the application of thick translation and paratext would lengthen the text and affect reading fluency,generating some difficulties to the translator and readers,however,the strategy of thick translation is of great significance in displaying our unique minority culture traditions,promoting the joint development of multi-ethnic cultures,showcasing the image of a major country featured by harmony and integrated culture of multiple dimensions,even driving the Chinese civilization to go global.Namely,it can be regarded as a key translation strategy of translating national classics.