Cultural Defaults And The Transmission Of Cultural Images In Martial Arts

With Chinese martial arts movies going abroad, it’s a challenge to present cultural images in related movies to foreigners. How to transmit the images smoothly and naturally while preserving the original cultural flavor as much as possible has remained a real problem. On the basis of cultural translation theories of Professor Liu Miqing and Nida, this paper makes a contrastive study on the Chinese and English subtitles of The Grand Master. Using the principle of cultural compatibility as an evaluation criterion, the study investigates how the translator resolves cultural default and transmits cultural images presented by martial arts to western audience. It is found that:1) the translator adopts free translation and conversion as the main strategy and other supplementary strategies (literal translation, compensation, omission and transliteration) are also used to translate culture-loaded words. This has greatly enhanced the readability of translated text and satisfy readers’ expectation on Kungfu and Kungfu culture; 2) the omission and transference of the semantic meaning may cause a loss of cultural connotation in translation and eventually affect culture exchange. The author then summarizes the influencing factors during the transmission of cultural images in martial arts movies. This study reasserts Professor Liu Miqing’s concept of semantic meaning determination and expression optimizing in translation, which provides guidance and reference for studies on the transmission of images of martial culture.While the Subtitle translation of The Grand Master successfully presents the charms of Kungfu and Kungfu culture to foreign readers, there are still some flaws in it. This paper concludes that cultural approach to interpreting culture-loaded words is beneficial for readers’ comprehension and acceptance, which in turn can also promote cultural transmission.