Report On The Translation Of Journeys In North China (Chapter 7) And Life Among The Chinese (Chapter 18)

This report is a review on the translation of Chapter 18 of Life among the Chinese, written by R. S. Maclay. And of Chapter 7 of Journeys in North China, written by Alexander Williamson. The book Life among the Chinese, describes China's geography, history, foreign affairs, religion, government agencies and laws and so on, and detailed records Chinese psychological state and local customs and practices. The other book, Journeys in North China, is written by Alexander Williamson during his travel in China, in 1860s. This book is mainly talk about Chinese human geography with plain language.In the first book, Life among the Chinese, the part of the author's translation mainly narrates what the western missionaries had seen, had thought and had felt in China when they spread Christianity here. In this book, there are a lot of difficult sentences and complex passages, and there are a large number of national cultural proper terms and cultural-loaded words. This part is divided into four sections, Provisions of recent Treaties, Present Condition of China, Brief Resume of Missionary Operation in China, Results and Encouragement. Another book is Journeys in North China, and the part of the author's translation mainly describes the human geography of Shandong Province during the Qing Dynasty, including land and population, topography, mountain ranges, lakes, harbors, industry, grain, agricultural products and all kinds of mineral resources, etc. There are a large number of place names of the Qing Dynasty, many of which are different from the place names we use today, which increases the difficulty of translation. According to the linguistic features of text, the author uses Nida's functional equivalence theory as the guiding principle for this translation report.In "case analysis", the core of the report, the author analyzes and classifies the difficulties mentioned above, combining with translation process and thinking, and finally gets solution. The original text contains a lot of proper terms of national culture and culture-loaded words. To keep the western historical and cultural elements, meanwhile, to let the readers to understand the original meaning better, the author, under the guidance of Nida's functional equivalence theory, combines literal translation, free translation and various translation methods for translation. For some culture-loaded words, the author, on the basis of fully understanding the original meaning, adopts equivalence method for translation, making it easier to be accepted by readers. In the conclusion, the author makes a summary on the experience and inadequacy of this translation practice, and suggestions for future improvement.On the guidance of Nida's functional equivalence theory, this translation report also takes various translation methods, to accumulate experience and lessons, exercise translation practice ability, and show faithfully to readers the status of religious culture, the cultural characteristics of northern China and China in the eyes of foreign missionaries in late Qing Dynasty.