Chinese Science Fiction Translation In The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence-A Case Study Of Beijing Zhe Die And Its English Version-Folding Beijing

Compared with other literary genres,the study of S.F translation by translators and scholars lacks theoretical foundation.Ken Liu has spared no effort in Chinese S.F translation career,making great contribution to the development of the Chinese S.F translation.Ken Liu has translated over 41% of Chinese S.F works published on famous English language magazines.And his efforts have helped many Chinese S.F works win their fame.Among his works,Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang,the recent Hugo Award work deserves being mentioned.The translation of Folding Beijing started from readers' response and kept the meaning,style and Chinese culture of the novelette.Since the publication of its English version,the novelette has been regarded as a channel to help readers from abroad to know a technology-developed future is to be shared by the world whether east or west.It also brought interest to Chinese S.F once more.So the work is worthy of our further research.Functional equivalence theory is deemed as the kernel of Eugene A.Nida's translation theory.As one of the translation theories introduced to China at an early time,the theory has produced a profound effect on translation studies in different literary genres.The emphasis of the functional equivalence is the target language readers should have a similar response after the reading as the readers of the source language do.The concepts of meaning,style and culture are crucial to the understanding of the functional equivalence.So the consideration of Ken Liu in his translation of Folding Beijing coincides with Nida's theory.The thesis is a research of Folding Beijing in the aspects of “meaning”,“style” and “culture” under the theory of Nida's functional equivalence.In terms of meaning,this thesis probes into excerpts from Folding Beijing,discussing how Ken Liu translated the referential meaning and connotative meaning of phrases and sentences that are connected with plot.In terms of style,the thesis explores from the two perspectives of the vividness of the language,aesthetic representation,to discuss Ken Liu's strategies.And in terms of culture,the thesis starts from readers' response,surveying the translation of culture-specific items andidioms in Folding Beijing.According to the research,it can be concluded that Ken Liu's version Folding Beijing has realized the social effect of inspiring people's introspection of the equality brought by advanced technologies,realized the functional equivalence as much as possible in the three aspects of meaning,style and culture,creating the closest natural readers' response among English readers.The thesis confirms the rationality and practical value of functional equivalence in Ken Liu's translation Folding Beijing.It is expected that with a detailed study,the thesis will enrich researches of Folding Beijing.Moreover,it is hoped that the thesis will be beneficial to further progress of translation of Chinese S.F works and the research of translation theory.