Standardization Of The English Translation Of The Term "Xiqu"

As a gem of Chinese culture,xiqu(traditional Chinese theatre)has played a significant role during the process of China's international culture communication.However,since its first contact with the western world,various of English versions of the word xiqu have been created.Until now,different versions coexist,hindering the global communication of this art and the development of related studies.Following the timeline,this thesis collects the historical translations of the word xiqu and concludes the main features of their usages in different ages.Current versions are also collected and analyzed in parallel dimensions.Based on those,this thesis analyzes the defects of current English versions in the category of term translation,and discusses the accounts of those versions as well as the causes of their defects.In the light of the studies and analysis above,this thesis refers to “the Systematic-Distincitve Principle” and puts forward a proposal to regulate the English translations,which stands for the use of xiqu as in pinyin(modern Chinese phonetic alphabet system),yet to push it by using the form of “transliteration plus description”.