Museum Interpretive Texts Translation

English museum interpretive texts are an essential platform to disseminateChinese culture and an effective window to enhance the public image of a city as wellas a country. However, few studies have been undertaken on the status quo of thetranslation of museum interpretive texts in a comprehensive and systematic way. Thisstudy aims to fill the gap by conducting qualitative and quantitative researches. Twohundred questionnaires and three interviews have been conducted to find out theexpectations of target readers, and the reasons why they are dissatisfied with thepresent English version of museum interpretive texts. On the basis of the studies andwithin the framework of communication theory, the author probes into thecommunication factors in museum interpretive texts, analyzes such failures prevalentin museum interpretive texts translation as physical, psychological, cultural andorganizational ones, and puts forward three general principles and seven strategies formuseum interpretive texts translation. The principles and strategies can also be appliedto other types of target reader oriented interpretive texts translation.