A Study On The English Translation Of Chinese Scenic Spot Names From The Perspective Of Memetics Exemplified With Xi’’an And Its Surrounding Areas

The reform and opening up policy, which greatly booms the tourism industry of China, has been carried out for almost 40 years. According to statistics, the greatest drive behind the phenomena lies in the fact that more and more foreigners are yearning to get a deeper understanding of Chinese culture. The tourism translation finds its proper position in these circumstances. The better the work on tourism translation is done, the better Chinese culture will get transmitted to the whole world. Otherwise, the national image of china will be ruined. Among all the tourism materials, attraction names are most outstanding, because names are the soul of scenic spots. Many scholars and researchers have devoted themselves to the field. Some of them advocate the method of transliteration by saying that it helps to foreground Chinese culture. However, over-transliteration probably means that the foreigners are forced to learn Chinese. Others insist on free translation and literal translation, which alternatively hinds the exportation of our culture. The author of the thesis tries in an attempt to seek for a dynamic view and draw some new blood. The new view is memetics.Memetics is a new but vigorous theory. The word meme derives from GENE of Darwinism. Scholars of memetics hold the view that believes, culture, and languages etc all belong to the transmission of cultural genes. A cultural gene contagions a potential host through media such as written words and melodies and then lingers in the mind of the host. In this way, the meme gets perceived and transmitted via the communication of the hosts. Until one day, it fails in the battle with other memes in the memepool and dies down. What we can find out is that memetics pays special attention to the rise and fall of memes, which builds up a dynamic view. Applied in the study of translation, memetics suggests that only a translation that adapts to its meme pool is regarded as a qualified translation. And seen from this perspective, the good translation replicates the memes of the original that has similar abilities to contagion potential hosts.Employed in the special area, the translation of the names of scenic spots is to replicate a target meme that may display similar images on the mind of a host and to guarantee that the very meme pass successfully the four stages of transmission. The four stages are assimilation, retention, and expression respectively. The author of the thesis tries to strengthen out the typologies of memes and apply them to the translation of scenic spot names, in a bid to better export the profound Chinese culture.