Abstract

As the economy is developing fast, the status of China is improving, therefore more and more foreigners are developing their interest in Chinese. However during the process of communication, cultural conflicts are becoming more and more obvious, and bring some misunderstandings. The translation of CHINA words has led to the language barriers, which have brought about great difficulty in foreigners’ understanding of English and sometimes even resulted in the effective communication of cultures. Language is the carrier of a country’s culture since different languages reflect different cultures. The translation of CHINA words has become an increasingly popular issue among scholars home and abroad. Although great achievements have been made by Chinese translators, there is still a long way to go in the aspect of the completion and practice of translation theory. This thesis is based on the translation of CHINA words, discussing the differences between China and the western countries historically, culturally, ideologically and geographically, as well as the influence on the translation. There are a number of different translation methods summarized by different translators, and four methods will be selected and be discussed in detail. The four methods are as follows, literal translation, free translation, transliteration and annotation, which will be concluded in this essay.

Key words: CHINA words; language; culture
 
摘要

随着经济的迅速发展，中国的国际地位日益提高，越来越多的外国人对中文开始感兴趣。但是在国际交流中，文化冲突成为明显的问题，给交流带来了不便。其中中国特色词汇的英译是造成语言障碍一个重要因素。语言是一个国家文化的载体，不同的语言反映出的文化也不尽相同。中国特色词汇的英译研究正在成为国内外学者关注的热点问题。虽然中国的翻译界在此领域已经取得了颇丰的成果，但是在翻译理论的完善和实践上还有很长的一段路要走。文章从中国特色文化词汇的英译入手，从历史因素，文化因素，意识形态以及地理情况等方面进一步探讨中西方的不同之处，及其对翻译的影响。翻译的方法多种多样，本文将从直译，意译，音译这四个方面，介绍中国特色词汇的英译方法。

关键词：中国特色词汇；语言；文化

1. Introduction
Language is a reflection of a country’s culture. Different countries have their distinctive languages, which can represent their respective cultures. China is a country with a long history and rich national culture, having great influence on its language. As the accelerating progress of globalization, China has been gaining momentum in many aspects economically and politically, thus more and more foreigners have developed their interest in learning Chinese, and an increasing number of studies into the translation of CHINA words have been conducted. Although the USA translation theorist Eugene A. Nida once said:" Languages and cultures all over the world were amazingly similar, CHINA words, which embody the Chinese culture, cannot be translated into English idiomatically". (Nida, 1986: 89)  In this paper, some comparisons and contrasts between Chinese and English cultural connotations and translation are made to illustrate the barriers in the process of translating and the methods to resolve them.