On The English Translation Of Shujian Enchou Lu From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

With the development of the cross-cultural communication, martial arts culture is gradually transmitted to the western world, which has been reflected in the widespread broadcast of these films such as Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, Heroes and Kungfu Panda. However, the number of the English version of martial arts fictions is limited. Shujian Enchou Lu is Louis Cha's first novel, the translation of which is helpful for the transmission of martial arts culture. Published by the Oxford University Express in 2004, the English version chosen by the author is translated by the British journalist Graham Earnshaw and edited by the famous Sinologist John Minford and his wife Rachel May. Based on the three rules of Skopos Theory and loyalty principle, this thesis aims to explore the translation methods in the translation of Shujian Enchou Lu through the comparative analysis of the source text and the target text from the following aspects:material culture, social culture, language, plot and register.In terms of culture, Graham retains most of the information and uses metaphrase, transliteration, transliteration plus explanation and substitution to deal with it, making great effort to transmit Chinese culture as well as making ordinary western readers understand the target text. In addition, with regard to the differences between English and Chinese, Graham adopts addition, deletion and conversion to make the target text acceptable in the target context. Furthermore, in order to achieve fidelity rule, Graham retains most of the plots and the register in the original text, realizing the vocative function of the original text.After the analysis, the author arrives at the conclusion that Graham adopts varied translation methods in order to achieve the translation skopos. The choice of translation methods is determined by the translation skopos. The Book and the Sword is adequate as it satisfies the requirements of the translation brief, achieving the purpose of spreading Chinese culture and language to the ordinary western readers. Skopos Theory offers a new perspective to the study of the translation of marital arts fiction. What's more, the translation methods chosen by Graham will be a good guide to the future translation of martial arts fiction.