| As an important part of soft power, national image concludes several aspects such as military force, politics, economy and culture. National cultural image is a part of national image conveying the cultural tradition, cultural behavior and value of a nation. A good national cultural image provides spiritual support to a nation’s economic image and political image, thus enhancing the overall national image. It is the precious intangible assets and indispensible soft power of a nation.To build a good national cultural image, we need to use the methods of cultural diplomacy and transcultural communication. With its unique attraction, Chinese traditional culture provides rich resources for cultural diplomacy and transcultural communication. As an important embodiment of Chinese traditional culture, classical Chinese literature’s transmission in western world can help build a good national cultural image of China. By analyzing the translation of A Dream of Red Chamber and its transmission in America, the text discovered the enlightenment to the transmission of classical Chinese literature and cultural diplomacy. At last the text gave advice on building good national cultural image of China. The paper will mainly go in five parts.The first part is about the relationship between the topic and cultural diplomacy. By analyzing the definition of national cultural image and its relation with cultural diplomacy, telling how the overseas transmission of excellent literature works in cultural diplomacy and how A Dream of Red Chamber helps promote cultural diplomacy and build national cultural image, the first part provided theoretical support to the whole paper.The second chapter is about the translation problem lying in transcultural communication. Translation is important in classical Chinese literature going abroad and it has a strategic significance in building national cultural image. By studying the translation history of A Dream of Red Chamber, the translation problem in overseas transmission of classical Chinese literature was pointed out.In the third part, two more problems lying in transcultural communication were discovered, that were cultural bias and different ideology. From the transmission history and research results of A Dream of Red Chamber in America, how cultural bias and ideology conflict affect transcultural communication was concluded which became a basis of westerners’recognition on Chinese national cultural image.The fourth part discusses the relation between the overseas transmission of A Dream of Red Chamber and building good Chinese national cultural image and analyzes how three barriers impede the building of good national cultural image. By studying the change of China’s cultural image, specific conditions have been pointed out in building good national cultural image through classical Chinese literature.The last chapter concentrates in the specific implementation suggestions on removing cultural bias and building good national cultural image through cultural diplomacy, which are strengthening Sino-US cultural exchange, weakening ideology in cultural diplomacy and attaching importance to translation. |
