A Report On The Translation Of A History Of Chinese Folktales (Excerpts)

With the furtherance of China's reform and opening up policy and the enhancement of its overall national strength,China began to vigorously promote Chinese culture overseas.Thus the Chinese Academic Translation Projects have been launched.The original text of the translation practice is excerpted from the first two sections in Chapter Five of A History of Chinese Folktales,a book listed in the 2016 Chinese Academic Translation Projects.The masterwork compiled by Professor Liu Shouhua in Central China Normal University is a pioneering work in the systematic study of Chinese folk tales.Establishing a framework for a 2,500-year history of Chinese folktales,this book is of great academic and cultural values.Therefore,its translation can promote the spread of Chinese culture and the academic exchanges between China and other countries around the world.This translation practice takes Thick Translation Theory as its theoretical guidance.The theory was put forward by Kwame Anthony Appiah,a philosopher,cultural theorist and novelist from the USA.It encourages translators to render the meaning and information hidden in the original text by adding annotations,comments,prefaces,footnotes and the like in the target text to achieve thick contextualization.The theory aims to get the target readers to understand exactly what the original text conveys,avoid misunderstanding in their thinking patterns and show respect to the source language culture.The translation report is divided into five chapters.The first chapter gives an introduction to the project,including the author,the source text and the significance of the project.The second chapter describes the translation process,including preparation,while-translation and quality control.The third chapter introduces Thick Translation Theory in detail.The fourth chapter is the case study under the guidance of Thick Translation Theory from lexical,syntactic and textual levels.The fifth chapter is the conclusion of the report.The translator summarizes the translationpractice,points out some limitations and gives some suggestions on literary translation as well.The translator hopes that her experience can offer some inspirations to those who are committed to the translation of literary works.