Chinese Tastes:Translation Theory Of "Taste" On Diet Literature

China boasts a long and deep-rooted diet culture and Chinese literati are well versed of expressing emotions and sharing wisdoms of life through vivid descriptions of dieting experiences.Various foods or banquets are often depicted in such Chinese classical works as Hong Lou Meng(A Dream of the Red Mansions).All these literary works together make up the tasteful diet literature of China.In the year 2012,gastronomic documentary series "A Bite of China" debuted in CCTV-1.Soon it has been translated into various languages and become a hit in the world.Diet literature caters to both refined and popular tastes and is of great significance in bringing Chinese diet culture to the world,translation study on diet literature,therefore,is becoming more and more important.At present,either included in literary translation field or limited to menu translation,the translation study on diet literature is far from satisfactory.The three main features of Chinese diet literature,namely,the taste of Chinese cuisine involving translations of cuisine names and dieting experiences,the taste of Chinese folk customs involving translations of folk adages and rituals and the taste of Chinese literati's emotions and life wisdoms,are not well presented and preserved in the translated texts and the artistic values of diet literature works,thus,have been degraded.Hence,a set of systematic and targeted translation theories on diet literature is in great need.It plays an important role in guiding our translation practice and accelerating the pace of Chinese diet literature going out.As has been mentioned,China's splendid diet culture has not only bred the tasteful diet literature with Chinese flavor,but also excited the sensitive gustatory nerves of Chinese literati.Their aesthetic synesthesia has laid the root for the tradition of criticizing artistic works in terms of "Taste".Chinese cuisine boasts unique tastes that can not be fully described by words and the same happens to Chinese artistic works,which bring about special aesthetic experiences that can be sensed by mind but cannot be expressed by words.The traditional Chinese theory of "Taste" originated from the theory of Yin-yang and Five Primary Elements of the pre-Qin period(?221B.C.)and ended with the theory of Aesthetic Status brought up by Wang Guowei in the late Qing Dynasty(1616 A.D.?1912 A.D.).It has been enriched and developed successively by generations of Chinese literati and finally become a complete and theoretical system with unique aesthetic values.The theory of "Taste" tries to criticize artistic works in the perspective of "Taste" while the diet literature keeps telling stories about food.They become the reciprocal interpretation of each other,for they share the same psychological basis and have similar aesthetic connotations.Therefore,applying the theory of "Taste" to the translation study on diet literature can not only improve the quality of diet literature translation works,which contributes to the oversea dissemination of Chinese diet culture,but can also reinvest classical theory with scientific spirit and value in era,which provides a new perspective for the construction of contemporary Chinese translation theories.The translation theory of "Taste" on diet literature is functionally a comprehensive research,namely the combination of theoretical research and applied research.And it belongs to the category of qualitative research as well.In specific operating,the thesis has adopted such research techniques as documentary study,concept interpretation,graphic representation,case study,comparative study and interdisciplinary study.All above-mentioned research methods are complementary and flexible in use,together they help construct the translation theory of "Taste" on diet literature.This thesis contains six chapters.Chapter One gives a general introduction of research purposes,research methods,research values,innovations,etc.And the literature review is included.Chapter Two consists of two sections.The first section talks about the development of traditional theory of "Taste" respectively on the dimension of time and logic;the second section tries to figure out integrating points between diet literature and the theory of "Taste",which lay the foundation for the construction of the translation theory of "Taste" on diet literature.Chapter Three,Chapter Four and Chapter Five form the main body of the thesis.Chapter Three serves as methodology which provides methods for preserving the Chinese tastes in diet literature translation.As mentioned above,the three main features of Chinese diet literature include the taste of Chinese cuisine,which involves the translation of cuisine names and dieting experiences;the taste of Chinese folk custom,which involves the translation of folk adages and rituals and the taste of Chinese literati's emotions and life wisdoms.The translation methodology of "Taste" offers corresponding translation methods respectively as follows:the taste of "difference" in the translation of cuisine names,the taste of "verisimilitude" in the translation of dieting experiences,the taste of "garlic" in the translation of folk adages,the taste of "broth" in the translation of folk rituals and the taste of implication in the translation of emotions and life wisdoms.The essence of all these methods of "Taste" is "harmony".Chapter Four serves as criticism theory which presents appreciation standards for diet literature translation.It contains two sections,namely detailed translation criticism and general translation criticism.The section of detailed criticism formulates appreciation standards according to each translation method that has been mentioned above.Namely,the "inner taste" of "difference" in cuisine-name translation,the "outer taste" of "verisimilitude" in dieting-experience translation,the "humorous" taste of"garlic" in folk-adage translation,the "aftertaste"of "broth" in folk-ritual translation,the "well-organized" and "stylish" taste in emotion-and-life-wisdom translation.While the section of general criticism has been divided into three levels according to the"Three Statues of A Prose" theory brought up by Jin Shengtan,the famous literary critic of the late Qing Dynasty(1616 A.D.-1912 A.D.).The first level of "Holy Status"describes the taste of harmony between image and meaning;the second level of"Magical Statues" describes the stylish taste bestowed to the translation work by its translator;the third and the supreme level of "Melted Status" describes the taste of nature and naive after all tastes have been melted into one without trace.Then it has reached the highest standard of diet literature translation.Chapter Five traces the philosophical roots and the theoretical basis of the translation theory of "Taste" on diet literature.The views of "harmony" and "harmony in diversity" originated from the Yin-yang and Five Primary Elements theory explain the dialectical thinking of harmony and diversity in the translation theory of "Taste",which has also buried its roots deep in the Confucian taste of "moderate" and the Taoist taste of "tasteless".What's more,the truth-seeking way of traditional Chinese philosophy lies in "creation of images for full expression",while the expression technique in diet literature appears the same.Last but not least,the view of "lost taste"which has first been put forward by Kumarajiva,the famous Buddhist sutras translator of the Six Dynasties,on describing his translation works,creates the theoretical precedent of translation study in the perspective of "Taste".Chapter Three,Chapter Four and Chapter Five interrelate with each other in the following way:translation criticism represents the best results of comprehensive adoptions of various translation methods in diet literature translating work.The leap from translation methodology to translation criticism is the leap from translation skills to translation arts.Besides,ideological roots of translation influence the development of aesthetic standards which further influence translation criticism.Thus the leap from translation criticism to translation ideology is the leap from translation arts to translation status.In conclusion,translation methodology,translation criticism and translation ideology together form a well-organized and systematic translation theory of"Taste" which gives better guidance to the translation practice of diet literature.Chapter Six is the review and summary of this thesis.