Applying Online Resources To C-E Translation Of A Brief History Of Chinese Aesthetic Culture

With the ever deepening cultural exchanges between China and other countries andChina’s implementation of its policy of enhancing her cultural soft power, the Chineseacademic and translating circles have been paying increasing attention to spreading Chineseculture to the outside world through translation. A Brief History of Chinese Aesthetic Cultureis an academic book in humanities, which introduces and describes traditional Chineseesthetic culture comprehensively in an elegant, concise, and accurate style of Chinese, withcultural, scientific, classic, and literary features. Its English translation will surely contributeto the dissemination of traditional Chinese esthetic culture to the outside world and helpsEnglish readers with a better understanding of it. The present translation and study project isan attempt to explore the translation of the book. As there is no translated version in Englishof the book available at present, our translation is original. Therefore, the present study is ofits practical significance and academic value.The object of the study is the Chinese text and its English translation of the third chapter“Rite-Music Culture in the Zhou Dynasty” of A Brief History of Chinese Aesthetic Culture.The research question is how to apply online resources to aiding translating the Chinese textso that the translation efficiency and quality can be improved. The research method isbasically one typical of general research in humanities, which, in the present case, is based onrelevant literature and the translator’s personal translating experience. The thesis is made upof five chapters. The first chapter introduces the background, significance and necessity of thestudy and its research object, question, and method. The second chapter discusses the relevantconcepts and the basic principles of applying online resources. The third chapter analyzes theChinese text with regard to its linguistic features and style. Chapter Four explores the properways of applying online resources, with some examples, to solving problems with thetranslation task, involving search engines, translation tools, text translation websites, onlineencyclopedia, etc. The last chapter concludes the thesis.The translation project of A Brief History of Chinese Aesthetic Culture requires a fulltranslation of the Chinese text, which should present the translated profile of the similar publications in English. In translating the third chapter of the book, the translator shouldadhere to the basic principles of academic correspondence and literary similarity in a properway. In applying online resources, the translator sticks to the accuracy and reliability principleand the applicability and relevance principle, and according to such principles, the translatorconducts a flexible application of various online resources including search engines,translation tools, text translation websites, online encyclopedia, etc., to solving problems intranslating such as better understanding of the deep meaning of some cultural terms andexpressions, and access to possible translations of those quotations from Chinese classics inthe book for reference, which improves her efficiency and quality of translation and helpsmeet the requirements of the translation project.