A Report On The Chinese-English Translation Of The Ethos Of Chinese Culture Under The Guidance Of Aixela’s Strategies For Translating Culture-Specific Items

In the context of Chinese culture going to the world,cultural exchanges are particularly important.The Ethos of Chinese Culture by Xu Zhuoyun describes all aspects of Chinese culture.The second and third chapters of the book focus on describing traditional Chinese thought and culture as well as ancient myths and legends.The English translation of this part is of great significance and is helpful for cultural and foreign exchanges.In the process of translation practice,the author found that the text contains a large number of culture-specific items,which have become difficulties in translation.How to choose the appropriate translation method to best present the original meaning and make it understandable by the target readers,which is of great significance.Taking a look at the translation studies of Chinese cultural books at home and abroad,most scholars focus more on translation from Chinese to English but pay less attention to Chinese-English translation.At the same time,many scholars focus on the two translation strategies of foreignization and domestication.Therefore,the author,based on the translation practice of cultural texts and guided by the macro background of Susan Bassnett’s view of cultural translation,attempts to apply Aixela’s translation strategies and methods with some modifications to deal with culture-specific items contained in the book.Aixela divided culture-specific items into proper nouns and common expressions.Based on the translation strategies and methods proposed by Aixela,this report finds that the translation of proper nouns can adopt different methods such as "transliteration","transliteration and inter-textual gloss","transliteration and extra-textual gloss" and"deletion".As to common expressions,methods such as "naturalization","inter-textual gloss","extra-textual gloss","transliteration and inter-textual gloss" and "absolute universalization" can be adopted to deal with the translation of common expressions.For different culture-specific items,various translation strategies and methods can be adopted so as to better convey Chinese culture.