On The Translation Of Culturally-loaded Terms In Liao Zhai Zhi Yi

Liao Zhai Zhi Yi is a famous collection of more than 400 peculiar short stories. As a work caming into being at the very beginning of the 17th century when the classical Chinese writing was on the wane, the appearance of Liao Zhai Zhi Yi (or Liao Zhai in abbreviation) injected vigor and vitality into the classical Chinese literature. Unlike previous books of this type, which either aimed at propagating superstition or providing entertainment to people, Liao Zhai Zhi Yi expresses the author’s outrage at the corruption and darkness of the feudal society, and discusses some problems of the society from his unique perspectives. Besides its far-reaching social significance and vivid images, the simple and straightforward languages as well as frequent use of culturally-loaded terms are impressive. These features combined make it of high artistic value. No wonder it is honored as the culmination of classical Chinese writing. The translation of the novel album certainly provides a chance for foreign readers to better understand this great work and appreciate the profound Chinese culture.In this paper, the author takes Cultural Translation Theory, which, was proposed in 1980s by Susan Bassnett, as the theoretical basis. As a leading scholar of cultural translation studies, Bassnett’s theory has exerted "revolutionary" and "subversive" impact on the contemporary international translation studies circles. It emphasizes the handling of cultural factors in the course of translation and points out the importance of translating works in its cultural context. Translation is the interlingual communication between two different languages as well as collisions between two cultures. The translators should be aware of the similarities and differences between the two cultures, choose appropriate translating strategies and methods so as to convey the cultural meanings effectively and achieve the purpose of intercultural communication. Based on the Cultural Translation Theory and under the guidance of cultural functional equivalence, this paper is intended to give a thorough analysis of the English version Strange Tales from Make-Do Studio by Denis C. & Victor H. Mair. It focuses on the translation of culturally-loaded terms in Liao Zhai Zhi Yi, aiming at analyzing how the translators deal with the cultural factors in the source text to achieve the cultural functional equivalence by the flexible use of different translating strategies and methods.