A Study Of The Reproduction And Variation Of Cultural Memes In Translation Process

The transmission of traditional Chinese culture has been an important way to display the cultural soft power,and besides continual perfection of translations through practice,another effective way for culture transmission is to explore suitable strategies for cultural texts translation from those already translated texts by discussing the gain and loss in their translation process and analyzing target readers'understanding and acceptance of those translated texts.Calligraphy,as a representation of traditional Chinese culture,has gained a growing number of learners and appreciators abroad along with China's economic and cultural development.However,although there are many famous writers and scholars introducing Chinese calligraphy to the foreign culture,the translation of calligraphic texts is rather limited,and the translated texts' focuses are diverse.The lack of first hand sources has caused obstacles for foreign learners and appreciators to get access to Chinese calligraphy.To improve the efficiency of calligraphy translation and to explore translation strategies suitable for calligraphic texts and other cultural texts,Shu Pu written by Sun Guoting is selected as the source text and two English versions by Sun Dayu and the couple of Zhang Chonghe and Hans H.Frankel are analyzed.Shu Pu is a calligraphy critique with profound culture contents,and the two versions have their respective styles and characteristics.Memes are carriers of ideas,and one of the core focuses of studies of memes is to achieve successful replication and spread of memes.In cultural communication,the effective transmission of cultural memes is key to successful communication.This study is conducted from the perspective of cultural memes,with the translation meme as the theory basis.It is conducted to discuss the changes in cultural texts that occur in the translation process by comparing the two versions of Shu Pu in terms of translation strategies.The change of cultural memes can be categorized as reproduction and variation,therefore this study classifies the cultural memes to examine the type and degree of their reproduction and variation in translation process.It is found that Sun Dayu's translation process is mainly the variation of cultural memes while Zhang Chonghe and Hans H.Frankel's translation process is mainly the reproduction of cultural memes.In addition to this,in terms of the type and degree of reproduction and variation,it is noticeable that Sun Dayu's translation process is characterized as "direct reproduction" and "violent variation",while Zhang Chonghe and Hans H.Frankel's translation process is characterized with "thick reproduction"and "mild variation".Based on the major findings,this study further discusses the practical implication"thick reproduction" has to cultural texts translation.The concept of "thick reproduction" is a development to the concept of "thick translation" as the principle of"thick reproduction" for translation practice is twofold.In terms of "reproduction",it is suggested that in the translation process the translator maintains the form and content of the source text and avoids obvious and excessive variation,thus making sure that target readers receive the source language culture as much as it originally is.In terms of "thick",the translator is supposed to provide sufficient and effective annotation to the cultural contents such as culturally specific images,culture terms,allusions and so on,so as to help readers to understand the culture foreign to them and know the cause and effect of the allusions.In the end,this paper summarizes the limitations of the study and puts forward corresponding suggestions for future studies.