Report On Guide Interpretation For Heritage Tours In Hunan By American Adoptive Families Under The Skopos Theory

With the booming of tourist industry and the development of child welfare system in China,heritage tour has emerged as a new type of tourism.In heritage tours,the overseas Chinese adoptees come back to their hometowns with their families,visit the welfare institutes where they were adopted from and go sightseeing around the country with the ultimate purpose of seeking for their “heritages”,which are the roots of their identity and culture.In the summer of2018,the author was commissioned by Guofan International Travel Agency as the guide interpreter for two heritage tours by American families.Guide interpretation is a complicated activity different from regular interpretation,which requires that one play a dual role as an interpreter and a tour guide with the tourists as the orientation and cope with the cross-cultural communicative situations in a flexible manner.The Skopos theory proposed by Hans Vermeer holds that translation is a purposeful communicative activity and the translation purpose determines the translation action.The translator or interpreter should adopt appropriate translation strategies and methods in accordance with the translation purpose.Under the Skopos theory,there are three translation rules including the Skopos rule,the coherence rule and the fidelity rule,among which the Skopos rule precedes over the other two.From the perspective of the Skopos theory,this report gives an analysis to the two guide interpreting practices,discusses the obstacles,successes and failure in realizing the skopos,coherence and fidelity of the interpretation.Regarding the successful interpretations,the author analyzes the corresponding coping strategies and methods adopted under the circumstances.Regarding the failed interpretation cases,the author dissects the reasons for the failures and makes improvements in the original interpretations by adopting appropriate strategies and methods according to the corresponding rules of the Skopos theory.Furthermore,the report gives assessment to the practices according to the translation criteria of adequacy under the Skopos theory,studies the applicability of Skopos theory in guide interpretation,and sums up the experience with a view to further improving the interpreting ability.