A Report On Chinese-English Translation Of Zhangjiajie Reader(Excerpts)

“Going global” has become one of the most important ways to build a culturally strong country and strengthen its cultural soft power of the country.As an international tourism city,Zhangjiajie boasts unique geographical landform and long history,which has yielded unique folkways that can be regarded as a treasure of Chinese folk culture.The translation and introduction of folk culture of ethnic minorities not only play an irreplaceable role in inheriting and promoting the excellent Chinese culture,but also help to enhance foreign tourists' experience of local folk culture.This translation report is based on the translation project of Zhangjiajie Reader,of which chapter three and its English translation are selected as the specific analysis texts.Chapter three of Zhangjiajie Reader,“Ancient Folk Customs”,mainly introduces the ancient folk customs of Tujia ethnic minority in Zhangjiajie City,such as architecture,costume,diet,musical instruments,marriage,funeral,traditional festivals,sayings,folk songs,dialects,etc.Due to the features of source text and the demand of local culture,the author takes the latest local standard Guidelines for English Translation of Public Signs in Zhangjiajie for the Development of Holistic Tourism(hereinafter referred to as Guidelines)as the translation guidelines,especially the translation principles stated in the Guidelines: “principle of adaptation to the original names”,“principle of communication” and “principle of aesthetics”.After carefully analyzing the characteristics of the source text by virtue of Newmark's Text Typology,the authors finds that the source text is typically featured with informative and expressive texts,mainly conveying information and expressing emotions.There are a large number of cultural terms like Zhuanjiaolou(L-shaped extended stilt houses),and abundant descriptive languages for the “Nuo drama performance” in line with the informative text.As for the expressive text,there are many colorful Tujia oral verses such as sayings,folk songs and dialectal expressions.Therefore,the case analysis of this report is carried out in light of the three translation difficulties of cultural terms,descriptive discourses and Tujia oral verses.This report focuses on the difficulties in the translation and introduction of Tujia culture,taking specific linguistic and cultural phenomena as the analysis objects.The author comes up with corresponding translation principles and methods for specific translation difficulties,which can be interpreted as follows: cultural terms should be translated withtransliteration under the “principle of adaptation to the original names”,descriptive discourses should be translated with liberal translation under the “principle of communication”,and Tujia oral verses should be translated with imitation under the“principle of aesthetics”.This translation helps the author improve translation ability and deepen the understanding of Tujia culture,thus providing some referential values for the translation of folk culture and its related research.