A Report On The English-Chinese Translation Of Folk Religion In The Baba Of Melaka

Language and culture have always been interdependent.Acting as the bridge of communication between languages,in translating culture-related items,the translator must take extra caution in her word choice to ensure both source readers and target readers receive the same information.One of the difficulties faced by the translator is how to retain the cultural features of the source text,and it is a challenge that must be overcome and solved.In this case study,the academic writing of Tan Chee Beng,a Malaysian anthropologist and scholar in Southeast Asian Studies,The Baba of Melaka:Culture and Identity of a Chinese Peranakan Community in Malaysia(1988)was selected as the material.The book focuses on analyzing the development of Baba in Malaysia,it contains an in-depth discussion of Baba,including their distribution,ethnic identity,language,custom and religion,kinship,and other related topics.Among them,there are a variety of culture-specific items related to custom and religion,which are factors that hinder the process of the Chinese translation of the text.Strategies proposed by Javier Franco Aixela in translating culture-specific items were applied in the translation process,including repetition,extratextual gloss,intratextual gloss,deletion,and autonomous creation.Besides,the translator added new ideas to these strategies too.Adoption or transliteration might be a better strategy in translating toponyms.For intratextual gloss and deletion,the translator also broadens its application for translating culture-specific items.Two new strategies namely specification and adoption,are introduced to deal with culture-specific items from the third culture.