Intercultural Translation

In the era of globalization, translation is showing more and more characteristics as a way of cultural communication. Culture, as a key factor playing great part in many translations has aroused interests of the academic world in the last 50 years and is now forming a theoretical system in Translation Studies. So it is very important and timely for us to study translation in a cultural perspective.The traditional studies about translation usually take the way of textual, structural and linguistic analysis, while the contemporary focus on the historical, cultural and other factors lying deeper between the lines, which play important roles in the process of translating.Many western scholars have noticed there are interactions between culture and translation, and they even have created new terms showing the interrelations between them, such as Christiane Nord's "intercultural communication"; Holz-Manttari's "intercultural cooperation" and David Katan's "cultural mediator". Most of their arguments are based on interdisciplinary comparative studies; some of them are really helpful for the development of Translation Studies. With the rapid development of Translation Studies, especially since the introduction of "cultural turn", intercultural translation and culture-oriented translation get their theoretical basis and are helping move this field of research forward.From the historical and theoretical reviews we can see that the interactions between culture and translation never stop. And also from practical analysis, several principles should not be neglected by an intercultural translator in the process of translating. However, adopting a cultural perspective or a cultural orientation does not mean that the text itself could be disregarded, but that a successful translator must be aware of the importance of both: the text and cultural context.