On Translation of Chinese Menu into English—Through a Cultural Perspective 英语专业毕业论文.doc

本科毕业论文（设计)题目 on translation of chinese menu into englishthrough a cultural perspective 院 系 外国语言文学系_专 业 名 称 英语_年 级 2009级_学 生 姓 名 _ 学 号 09044212_ 指 导 教 师 _二零一三年五月on translation of chinese menu into english through a cultural perspectivea thesis submitted in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for the degree of bachelor of artsin the school of foreign languages and literatureschongqing university of educationschool:school of foreign languages & literaturesmajor:english class: twoname: lan tingtingstudent no.:09044212supervisor:bao gangdate:may 10th, 2013重庆第二师范学院本科毕业论文（设计）原创性声明本人郑重声明：所呈交的论文是本人在导师的指导下独立进行研究所取得的成果。除了文中特别加以标注引用的内容外，本论文不包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或未发表的研究成果。本人完全意识到本声明的法律后果由本人承担。作者签名： 年 月 日acknowledgementsfirst of all, i would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, bao gang, for his instructive advice and useful suggestions on my thesis. in the preparation of the thesis, he has spent much time reading through each draft and provided me with inspiring advice. i also would like to thank professor zhang xiaoqing for her guidance in the essay writing course last term. from her devoted teaching and enlightening lectures i have benefited a lot and academically prepared for the thesis.my gratitude also extends to all the teachers who taught me during my undergraduate years for their kind encouragement and patient instructions. meanwhile, i want to thank the college library from which i got enough useful information, with the help of which i finished my paper.finally, i would like to offer my particular thanks to my friends and family, for their encouragement and support for the completion of this thesis.abstract: since china has joined the wto, with the continuous development of globalization, chinese food has become an important window for more and more foreigners to comprehend china. thus, in order to make foreigners know our chinese cooking culture deeply, the trend for translating chinese foods name into english cannot be ignored. however, menu translation is a new field in china. foreigners have a limit to know chinese food and to accept dish translations. the difference of language and culture between western and china is the main reason for this limit. chinese menu translation is not only a new area to study cultural differences between western and china but also an urgent and arduous task for the translation industry in china. the paper aims to undertake an exploration of english translation of chinese menu from a cultural aspect. after the description of the background of chinese menu translation at present and the features of chinese menu, the cultural discrepancies between china and the west countries are presented. then theproblems with chinese menu translation are pointed out. after that, some translation strategiesare carried out, which are based on materials, regions and creators or literary quotation. at the same time, some examples in beijing olympic game menu are respectively analyzed. through the systematic analysis, the writer believes that it is very important to do the translation of chinese menu into english, and cultural awareness should be increased when translating. at last, some problems when translating chinese menu are stated in details and solutions are set forth too, which can provide the theoretical support and reasonable advice for further research of the translation of chinese menu into english. key words: cultural differences; the translation of chinese menu; cultural awareness; problems of translations; solutions摘要：随着中国加入世界贸易组织和全球化的不断发展,中国的饮食已成为越来越多的外国朋友了解中国的一个重要窗口。因此,为了让外国朋友能更加深入地了解中国饮食文化, 研究中餐菜单的英译问题的趋势不容小觑。然而,菜单翻译是中国的一个新领域。又由于中西方饮食文化的差异，外国朋友始终在了解中国饮食文化和菜单翻译上有所限制而无法完全理解。研究中餐菜单翻译不仅是一个新的领域，也是一项在中国翻译行业中紧迫而艰巨的任务。本文从文化视角系统地探讨了中式菜单的翻译。在阐述文化翻译的背景、文化差异与中西方菜单之间的关系之后，本文介绍了中式菜单的特点。接着指出了菜单翻译中存在的问题，并在此基础上，提出了中式菜单翻译的方法，分别以材料、地域、人物或典故命名的菜单的翻译方法开展讨论。经过分析，得出中餐菜单的翻译应被予以足够的重视的结论，而且在翻译过程中要提高文化意识。最后，本文对中英文菜谱互译过程当中可能发生的一系列问题进行了详尽的阐述，并为这些问题提出了有针对性的解决方案，为广大翻译人员进行菜谱等文件翻译提供强大的理论支持和合理建议。关键词：文化差异；菜谱翻译；文化意识；翻译问题；解决方案 thesis statementcultural factors are the most difficult point in the translation of chinese menu into english, so some strategies are proposed to address the problems caused by cultural discrepancies.v contents1. introduction1 1.1 background of chinese menu translation1 1.2 significance of standardized chinese menu translation12. literature review23. culture and chinese menu4 3.1 cultural discrepancies manifested in chinese menu4 3.1.1 discrepancies in cooking culture between china and the west4 3.1.2 discrepancies in naming dishes between china and the west6 3.2 chinese menu features 6 3.2.1 diversity and regionalism in naming chinese menu6 3.2.2 flexibility and epochal featurein naming chinese menu74. problems with chinese menu translation caused byculturaldiscrepancies8 4.1 incapabilityto find equivalent words from chinese to english8 4.2 incapabilityto directly translate chinese into english8 4.3 incapabilityto convey accurate culturalinformation95. proposed strategiesto chinese menutranslation into english9 5.1strategy one: naming dishes based on materials9 5.2strategy two: naming dishes based on regions11 5.3strategy three: naming dishes based on creators or literary quotation126. conclusion13bibliography151. introduction 1.1 background of chinese menu translation china, with a large population, vast territory and abundant resources, is famous for its glorious civilization. its long history makes chinese cooking be well-known all over the world. about 3000 years ago, the chinese firstly invented the techniques of making and using soy sauce, vinegar, wine, jam and spices during the yin-zhou period. therefore, chinese cuisine becomes a very important part of chinese culture. those people who know chinese cuisines know better about china. since chinese menu is an important way to help others to know chinese cuisine, chinese menu translation becomes a window of chinese cuisine for foreigners. however, menu translation is a new field in china. making the study of chinese menu translation is still not enough. even nowadays, chinese menu translation is still not being considered as a serious academic study. 1.2 significance of standardized chinese menu translation standardized chinese menu translation in beijing was showed on the following website: during december 2006 to january 2007, whose purpose is to ask for advice. it is a large-scaled activity of english translation for chinese menu in which experts, citizens and foreigners all join. after then, beijing tourism administration asked for advice again in august 2007 online. as the beijing olympics game was coming near, chinese menu translation was a matter of great urgency. many experts at home and abroad in this field were organized under the government to revise chinese dish names into english. after seeking ideas and advice through different channels, chinese menu in english version was published on 19th june 2008, which plays a guiding role in standardizing english translation of chinese menu. it is profound to standardize chinese menu into english. first, it conveys chinese menu more accurately to understand by foreigners, which is better to give enormous publicity to chinese culture. a single dish name will cause confusion which has more than one translation. even we chinese cant understand what the menu really mean. in fact the multi-translation of chinese menu not only puzzled the foreigners, but also might cause foreigners to misunderstand the culture of china. for example, the former translation of “夫妻肺片” was stated as “husband and wifes lung slice”, which is easily to be misunderstood as lung slices from a couple. second, in the course of translation, a lot of experts in this field who can appropriately do with culture differences between china and the west pay attention to chinese menu and take part in translation. besides, the government has asked for advice at home and abroad widely, so it popularizes through the whole country, arousing chinese peoples enthusiasm to translate chinese menu into english. to some extent, it expands the influence of chinese menu. whats more, it is of great use for high-rated hotels and restaurants to render new dishes. 2. literature review in the coming nearly ten years, many translators are taking part in cuisine translation to the ranks, and in the field of english translation of chinese dish names they have accumulated a large number of research results. the research generally can be classified as the language characteristics and translation skills of translation theories or principles exploring for these two categories. i will do some comparative analysis and draw a conclusion for these researches. at the same time, i will spend time on the future development direction and trend of translation and outlook the future. moreover, i hope i am able to provide some ideas and references for future chinese menu translation studies, in order to further this kind of field study.first of all, from the level of theory to make an analysis of translation theory, there is a close relationship between translation and culture, especially for a study of culture, language and translation. bachman explores language testing from a theoretical point of view in this book. it also mentioned how to translate some chinese dishes into english (bachman, 1990). it is a collection of essays which brings together the two leading international figures in the discipline of translation studies, susan bassnett and andre lefevere. the essays cover a wide range of fields, and combine theory with practical case studies involving the translation of literary text（bassnett & lefevere, 2001.04.). the author makes an analysis of two closely related elements that is culture and language during the translations. he emphasizes that language and culture cannot exist without each other. and language not only can reflect culture but also shape culture, so we should consider cultural differences when translating (eugene a. nida, 1991). clifford landers provides pragmatic techniques for dealing with problems of literary translation. its very useful, informative, and practical. its a great guide for beginning translators (landers, 2008.07). pragmatics is the branch of linguistics that deals with the meanings and effects that come from the use of language in particular situations (levinson s c. 1983: 45). this book presents a comprehensive theory on translation and makes an analysis of bible translation which helps the bible translators a lot (nida e. a & taber. c. r. 1969:12.). venuti tries to show how the theory and practice of translating literary works has been enacted throughout the centuries. it took me ages to finish. this book has provided me with a lot of insight about translating and what it means, culturally. it has also told me how we adhere to foreign cultures when translating (venuti, 2004.06). it firstly presents the principles of chinese menu translation and then according to different classifications, lists a lot of dishes english names; this book offers great help for the foreign friends who attended the beijing olympic game in 2008, at the same time it also gives guidance for the standardized chinese menu translations (北京市人民政府外事办公室和北京商务局2008). its a good course book on pragmatic translation. it covers a lot. one chapter is tourism translation which mentioned some translation of chinese dishes (方梦之，毛忠明2004). it studies the translation of different types of writing and also presents the discussion of the cultural issue translations（郭建中1999.). actually, it does not cover all aspects of chinese menu translations, it just talks a few about it, but the author emphases a principle of menu translation that the translator should have a good knowledge about the dishes features and also know well about the dishs cultural meanings (黄海翔. 1999，(1). this book presents a lot of examples about translation from different aspects based on the cross-cultural communication. it enriches my knowledge and also let me know more about cultural differences between china and west countries (金惠康2002.). it is one of the most useful literatures as for my paper. the authors main argument is that chinese menu translation into english first should follow the english language habits and meet foreign friends convenience of dinning, and second reach the aim of enhancing national culture, so the translators not only should have good knowledge of every dishs raw materials and cooking methods but also should master cultural discrepancies between china and west countries and then apply corresponding translation methods and skills when translating (潘桂娟2008(10). this paper takes the examples from chinese menu in english version and tries to explore the approaches of chinese menu translation into english from the perspective of pragmatic equivalence. let me know how important to try to keep the translation pragmatic equivalence with the mother tongue (张志祥2009(4). this website is to set up chinese cuisine brand and improve its international image. i quoted some examples from this website on my paper (中文菜单英文译法(正式发布fit) 20090425.). learning chinese menu is not only a new area to study cultural differences between western and china but also an urgent and arduous task for the translation industry in china. there are still lots of problems existing at present. therefore, this kind of field is worth exploring further.3. culture and chinese menu 3.1 cultural discrepancies manifested in chinese menu 3.1.1 discrepancies in cooking culture between china and the west owing to different material abundance and cultural deposits, there are big discrepancies in cooking culture between china and the west. first, it is the concept of diet, which is formed in the course of people making and eating foods, deeply influenced by the natural environment and social environment. the discrepancies in cooking culture lie in the characteristics of cultural roots between china and the west, especially the characteristics of thoughts of creators who coined cultures in china and the west. an old chinese saying goes like “food is the paramount necessity of the people.” it shows an aesthetic and perceptual concept of diet of chinese people, the pursuit of whom was beyond expression. chinese people believe that cooking is an art. the charming of chinese cuisine is the taste. the color, aroma, taste and appearance are the quintessence of chinese cooking art. therefore, chinese stress importance ofthe good tasting and spirit enjoyment when eating, rather than the nutrition of foods. instead, the west pays attention to rationality and science, who treat diet as a necessary means and communication method. they emphasize the nutrient value of foods, the content of protein, fat and vitamin, instead of the color, aroma, taste and appearance. as yutang lin says, the west just believes that “eating” is a process to inject the fuel to a biological machine. they eat to keep the health of their body and fight against pathogen infection, not seek ease and comfort. besides, there are also discrepancies in dinner concept. chinese people are fastidious about the food,displaying of splendor when entertaining guests. they usually prepare much more foods than the host and guests can eat in order to show their solicitous hospitality. however the foods in the west dinner are relatively simple. people think dinner as a chance to gather and communicate. the food is necessary, but not the most important. because of such concept, the dinner in west attaches importance to the variety of dinner styles. second, it is the structure and ways of eating. different agricultural structures lead to two different kinds of eating structure and habits. chinese cooking culture is based on traditional farming industry. the early agriculture history makes chinese people live in a settled life by farming. the food is mostly made up of grains with a little meat, supplementing with green vegetable. farming by the slash and burn method, chinese people found that cooked food is more delicious. so the cooking skills are becoming diverse and people attach importance to food collocation. however, the main traditional agriculture of the west is animal husbandry where farming only accounts for a little part. the developed animal husbandry provides the west people abundance of meat products and milk products, supplementing with little wheat food. the west doesnt eat the pluck and anything that they think is nonnutritive. their cooking skill is simple and they eat raw vegetables. the differences of food structure lead to the differences of dishes. chinese people use the chopsticks, while the west uses forks and knives, which makes different eating habits and affects the concepts of life between chinese people and the west. professor pan guijuan believes that forks and knives bring to share food, while chopsticks lead to have dinner with family members. 3.1.2 discrepancies in naming dishes between china and the west the names of the dishes, as an advertisement of restaurant merchandises, have to attract customers and promote the dishes. theres a large variety of dishes in chinese menu, as well as staple food, so there are different kinds of chinese dish names too. while naming dishes, many rhetorical skills are used to be elegant, implicative, lucky and festival. the typical example is “佛跳墙(fotiaoqiang-steamed a