On Dish Name Translation In A Bite Of China From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

As a classic documentary produced by CCTV,the A Bite of China well presents the brilliant food culture of China.Ever since its broadcast in 2012,it arouses overwhelming response from audience as well as the attention from some scholars.A Bite of China aims to promote traditional Chinese food culture through various kinds of food,thus a great deal of dish names appear in the program.So far,the program has been broadcast for three seasons with English subtitle,and its English version is available on foreign websites as well.However,researches related to dish name translation in A Bite of China are relatively limited,and the present studies mainly explore dish name translation from the perspective of Linguistics,Functional Equivalence,and Skopos Theory.Therefore,the thesis shifts the research focus to target readers,employs qualitative research method,and takes the dish names in the first two seasons of A Bite of China as research objects under the guidance of Reception Aesthetics.Major concepts such as “horizon of expectation”,“fusion of horizons” “indeterminacy”,and “aesthetic distance” of the theory are employed to analyze the translators’ consideration of target readers in dish name translation,then the thesis summarizes target reader oriented translation strategies and translation methods applied in the process of translation,aiming to provide reference for dish name translation.Firstly,the thesis analyzes how translators meet target readers’ horizon of expectations in terms of language habits,cultural factors,and religious beliefs.Then it discusses how translators achieve the fusion of horizons,how to deal with indeterminacy as well as aesthetics distance.This study demonstrates that during the process of dish name translation,the translator should take full consideration of target readers’ language habits,cultural factors,religious beliefs,and aesthetic standards,etc.flexibly adopt domestication and foreignization strategy,and employ different translation methods according to actual situation,such as literal translation,free translation,loan translation,and transliteration.This research shows that translator must take full consideration of target readers’ acceptability and involve target readers in the translation process of dish names.The thesis provides a new angle for study on dish name translation,and proves the instructive significance of Reception Aesthetics in dish name translation as well.