Cultural Perception And Translation As Double Act Of Intercultural Communication

This paper explores the impact of cultural perception on translation process. In order to discuss in a convenient way, this paper puts forward a new translation model, drawing on traditional translation models, theories from "cultural turn" of translation studies, and intercultural communication (hereafter referred to as IC) and treating translation process as one important channel of IC and a double act of communication (W, Jenny & C Andrew, 2004: 52). In the new translation model the potential impact of cultural perception, which has the function of filtering, is made ostensive. The impact of cultural perception and its diversity on translation process is explained, drawing on Katan's Theory of Perception Filters and Theories of Uncertainty Avoidance. Then this paper proves the impact of cultural perception and problems caused by its diversity in translation practice through the analyses of some examples from two versions of the Chinese classic Honglou Meng. During this process of analyzing, some practical suggestions are provided to solve these problems in translation practice. At the end of this paper, from the perspective of IC, theoretical solutions are suggested to overcome the impact of cultural perception, drawing heavily on Gudykunst's Uncertainty/Anxiety Management Theory.In this paper, it is pointed out that uncertainty avoidance is universal in IC. To avoid uncertainty, people can withdraw from the communication or try to reduce uncertainty. In translation process, to reduce uncertainty, a translator has two choices: 1) s/he can decode the ST through the perception of the SC; 2) also s/he may draw on his/her own cultural perception to decode the ST or TT when s/he does not own the knowledge and ability that allow him/her to empathize and to decode the ST or TT through the perception of the SC.There are differences between different cultures' value system which is the main determinant of cultural perception. Thus there are differences between different cultures' perceptions and there exists the phenomenon of the diversity of cultural perception. As perception is an attributional process during which a stimulus (in translation process a stimulus can be a word, phrase, discourse or text) is decoded,...