A Report On The Chinese-English Translation Of The Bai Ethnic Minority In China(Excerpts)

In recent years,a number of excellent Chinese literary works and ethnic cultural classics have been translated into many languages.These translated works promote publicity of the Chinese culture and facilitate inter-/intra-cultural exchanges.As a result,the ethnic cultures and the Chinese traditional culture with diverse and distinctive features have been concerned and also attracted much attention.As one of the most populous ethnic groups in China,the Bai ethnic minority has a long history and splendid culture,which is worth studying.The fourth chapter of The Bai Ethnic Minority in China has been selected as the translation material for this translation practice.The purpose is to introduce the traditional culture of the Bai ethnic minority to English readers so as to improve its soft power and promote the cultural exchanges between the Chinese ethnic minorities and the nationalities of other countries.The Bai Ethnic Minority in China is compiled by Professor Wang Feng,etc.It is published by Ningxia People’s Publishing House in 2012,and Chapter Four mainly presents the social culture of the Bai ethnic minority.The translation practice report includes five parts.The first part introduces the background,the source text,and the translating purpose,significance of this translation practice.The second part describes the detailed work of pre-translating,while-translating and post-translating that went through the whole process of translation.The third part mainly states communicative translation theory which this translation practice report uses as the theoretical reference and the two strategies the translator adopts,domestication and foreignization.As the core of this report,the fourth part discusses the translation of some culture-loaded words and the phenomenon of polysemy and cultural loss.The translator employed three translation approaches in this practice: literal translation,free translation,transliteration with annotation,together with the detailed analyses of some translation cases.In the last part,the translator summarized some limitations,precious experience and gains obtained from this translation practice.