C-E Translation Of Scenic Spot Introduction In The Light Of Skopos Theory

With the continuation of China’s in-depth reform and her policy of opening to the outside world and the successful host of2008Beijing Olympic Games, the prospect of tourist industry is quite promising. More and more international tourists are attracted to conduct international communication and exchanges. To build an excellent scenic spot and a good image as well as to help foreigners better know Chinese culture, the scenic spots need to be publicized to improve their popularity, so the translation of scenic spot introduction is inevitably playing an important role. Nowadays, scenic spot introductions in China are written in both Chinese and English in scenic spots, but lots of the translations are roughly produced, which will severely damage the image of the scenic spot as well as leave a bad impression on the foreign tourists. Therefore C-E translation of the scenic spot introductions deserves an in-depth study.First of all, English and Chinese belong to two distinctive language systems. Besides, scenic spot introduction is a special functional stylistic text, the purpose of its translation is to attract more foreign tourists and facilitate their tour in China by providing useful tourism information, and thus promoting Chinese culture. And what’s more, there is a great discrepancy in English and Chinese culture. In view of the above factors, translators generally meet great difficulties in achieving the traditional translation criteria of equivalence. Skopos Theory offers a new theoretical basis for translators. Skopos Theory holds that every translation activity has its certain purposes. The prime principle that determines any translation process is the skopos and communicative functions. The end justifies the means, and the strategies and methods are determined by the intended purpose and function, which is suitably applied to the translation of such pragmatic texts as scenic spot introduction with an intended purpose. In the process of translation, the translator should bear in mind the functional features of scenic spot introduction text along with its translation purposes and put the target addresses in a core place, thus adopt flexible strategies to fulfill the intended function of the target texts.As an important part of propaganda materials, scenic spot introduction plays a very crucial role in publicizing scenic spot, therefore more and more scholars and translators have researched in this circle. As the traditional translation theory of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance" and the traditional strategies of "equivalence" to the original text couldn’t satisfy people’s growing needs of translating non-literary text types, the thesis carries out a new study over the translation of the scenic spot introduction in light of Skopos Theory in order to find the general problems arising in C-E translation of scenic spot introduction. This thesis focuses on the C-E translation of the scenic spot introduction from a perspective of "Skopos Theory", by adopting the authentic selected bilingual versions of the scenic spot introductions of Hengshan Mountain, a real reflection of situations in the tourist industry on translation of the scenic spot introduction, bearing scientific values in translation studies. The author concludes with the major findings in this thesis. Firstly, it is quite necessary to deepen "Skopos Theory" employed on the translation of the scenic spot introduction; Secondly, in order to improve the quality of translation of scenic spot introductions, scenic spot introductions of Hengshan Mountain selected in this study should be representative, authentic and valuable; Thirdly, awakening people’s awareness and improving the status of the translation of the scenic spot introduction can make the translation of the scenic spot introduction perfect and enrich the research carried on by former scholars.Finally, it needs to be pointed out that all the suggested translations in this thesis are offered by the author, by consulting some translating methods guided by Skopos Theory and referring to books of translation of scenic spot introduction.