A Study On The Chinese Translations Of The Joy Luck Club From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

Chinese American literature has drawn more and more attention from both scholars all over the world in recent years. However, the lack of translations severely limits the development of research in China. This thesis aims to investigate how to achieve"functional equivalence"in the translation of Chinese American works through the comparative analysis of three Chinese translations of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club.Eugene Nida's"functional equivalence"theory plays an important role in the development of translation theory. Different from traditional theories focusing on source text and target text, this theory shifts the emphasis to reader's response. The closest natural equivalence in translation should make target readers respond similarly to the target text as original readers to the original one.This thesis compares three Chinese translations of The Joy Luck Club from the perspective of"functional equivalence"theory, and examines whether they have achieved"functional equivalence"in meaning, style and culture through detailed analysis of many examples in translation.Through comparative research, we found that in the process of translation, translators should first have a correct understanding of words according to different contexts, and try every effort to convey the original style in order to create the same receptor response. Regarding the cultural elements, translators should transfer Chinese culture on the basis of correct understanding.