A Report On The Chinese Translation Of The Fau-qui In China(Chapters 4-6 Of Volume Ⅰ)

The report is based on the translation of chapters four to six in Volume I of The Fan-qui in China, written by Charles Toogood Downing. The book mainly describes Guangdong in the eyes of Charles Toogood Downing, the perspective of the book covers more than opium, trade, foreign relations, Guangdong customs and etc. extensively. The part of author’s translation of The Fan-qui in China mainly describes what Charles Toogood Downing had seen and heard after he arrived in Guangdong, covers all kinds of vessels and various vendors, porters, sailors, compradors who are the main occupation of Chinese people at that time. At the same time, with the author’s footsteps came to the great plain, we have a view of the field and the Chinese tradition.There are numerous foreigners’ works about China, which have been translated are very few. For the academic development and the interests of people, the author translates the original text written by the westerner into Chinese accurately, which help the Chinese observe China of the foreigner’s eyes and review Chinese culture and history from different perspectives, and also provide with abundant research materials for the related study. In the process of translation, the author tries to retain the information and linguistic features of the source text. Therefore, the author takes Skopos Theory as a guiding principle. The core concept of Skopos Theory is that the purpose of translating is regarded as the leading factor and the translation strategies and methods are determined by that.Basing on the the translation principle (eg. Skopos Theory of German functionalism), combining with literal examples and difficulties in the translation process, the translation project has been completed by using a variety of translation skills. The report includes five parts. The first chapter introduces the source of the original text, the linguistic features of source text and significance of the project; The second chapter states the preparation the author did for the translation, includes the the author’s language style, reference of the parallel text and division of labor; The third chapter is about the translation theory of the report; The fourth chapter, which is the body part of the report, concerns the analysis of some important examples and difficulties the author encountered during translating. The author classifies these examples into words, sentences and paragraphs, then analyzing these examples.; The fifth chapter is a review and summary of the whole work in translation.