Abstract:

Culinary art is an important part of a nation’s cultural connotation. Since China’s reform and opening up, the interaction among peoples of different nations is becoming increasingly close, Chinese catering culture is widely spread all over the world. In addition, with China’s accession to WTO and the development of the globalization, Chinese dish’s name, as a window of China’s special cultural environment, is playing an increasingly important role. Therefore, it is very urgent and necessary to translate Chinese dish names into English. However, the foreigners have some difficulties knowing and accepting Chinese dishes’ connotations due to language, cultural background and so on. Moreover, the English versions of Chinese dish names are not standardized, which results in the facts that foreign friends often have trouble understanding Chinese dishes. Therefore, to translate Chinese dishes into English is essential for carrying forward Chinese catering culture. Chinese cuisine is rich in various cultural elements. Cuisine names usually reflect exquisite cooking techniques, rhetorical allusions, colorful culinary jargons, the inventor and birthplace of the dishes. This essay first discusses the current situation of the English translation of Chinese cuisine; then it introduces seven practical translation methods for Chinese dish names; last, it analyzes the reasons why it is hard to translate Chinese dishes into English and also puts forward a few suggestions on how to translate Chinese dishes while keeping their original features. In short, cuisine culture plays an important role in China. Chinese cuisine names reflects many cultural elements. Rendering Chinese cuisine names into English versions with Chinese flavors and foreign popularity will promote the intercultural communication significantly.

Key words: cultural connotation; catering culture; Chinese dish names; translation     methods    

摘要:

饮食艺术是一个国家文化内涵的重要组成部分，改革开放以来，我国与世界各国的联系日益紧密，中国的饮食文化在全世界得以广泛传播。另外，随着我国加入世贸组织和全球化的不断发展，中国菜已成为越来越多国际友人了解中国的一个重要窗口，扮演着重要角色。但是，语言，文化背景等方面的差异限制了外国人对中国菜的了解和接受，再加上中式菜肴名称的英文翻译不够规范，往往让外国朋友难以理解，因此，将中国菜翻译成英语，将中国饮食发扬光大是非常重要的。中式菜肴富含各种文化元素，各种各样的烹饪技巧，林林总总的修辞典故，丰富多彩的业内行话，甚至创始人、发源地、吉祥语都成为中国菜肴名称的重要部分。本文首先介绍了中式菜名英译的现状，随后结合实例归纳提出了七种具体实用的菜肴名称的翻译方法，最后分析了中式菜名英译难的原因，并且提出了翻译好中式菜名的几点建议。总之，饮食文化在中国具有重要地位，中式肴名称包含丰富的文化内涵。将中式菜名翻译成既具有中国韵味又被外国友人接受的译文，对于促进不同民族间的交流有着十分重要的意义。

关键词：文化底蕴；饮食文化；中国菜名；翻译方法