A Study On Chinese-English Translation Of Public Signs In Xi’an And Xianyang

Since the policy of opening up and the reform was carried out, there has been a deepexchange between China and other countries. In recent years, more internationalactivities have been held in China, such as Olympic Games held in Beijing in2008,World Expo held in Shanghai in2010, Asian Games held in Guangzhou in2011andHorticulture Expo held in Xi’an in2011. So more and more foreigners come into Chinafor work, for study, for travel, etc. In order to make a good exchange in different fields,many foreigners come into China to study Chinese and Chinese culture, and moreChinese people begin to study foreign languages, especially English. According to asurvey made by Chinese Language Committee in2009, English is the top foreignlanguage used in some big cities in ten provinces, covering82.77%of all foreignlanguages. Nowadays, Chinese and English public signs are easily found from coastalcities to inland cities. It plays a positive role in foreigners’ work, study, life, etc. InChina, unfortunately, because of different translators’ capabilities and lack of translationstandard, there are many errors in English versions of public signs, such asmistranslation, incomplete translation and over-translation. These problems oftranslation confuse and mislead receptors, and influence the exchange between Chinaand other countries, even harm the image of China.Xi’an is servicing as a sample city in the northwest of China, it is the capital ofthirteen dynasties in succession. The development of Xi’an plays an important role indevelopment of western regions of China as well as the whole country. In recent years,in order to quicken the pace of development of Xi’an and reduce the gap between Xi’anand costal cities, a new district, Xi-Xian District, is set up by the governments of Xi’anand Xianyang. The new policies speed up the development of the Xi-Xian consolidation.Besides, more activities, such as Euro-Asia Economic Forum and2011Xi’an Expoattract more foreigners to come here for work, for study, for tour, etc. and more foreignenterprises invest in Xi’an and Xianyang. Public signs are important for foreigners.According to the survey only made in several shopping malls in Xi’an, there are a largenumber of errors in Chinese-English translation of public signs. The result is serious.This thesis aims at reducing the foreigners’ confusion and inconvenience caused bymistranslation of public signs, and improving people’s awareness of proper translationof pubic signs as well as setting up a good language environment. The thesis beginswith the research on Chinese-English translation of public signs made by scholars and professors in recent years, and it is based both on the understanding of definition, types,features of public signs and on the mastery of principles and strategies for theChinese-English translation of public signs. The author has studied the English publicsigns collected in some public places in Xi’an and Xianyang, and have summarized theproblems existing in Chinese-English translation of public signs in Xi’an and Xianyang.