On The Translation Of Culture-loaded Words In Secrets Of Shadow Play(Excerpt)-A Translation Report

Traditional translation theories hold that translation is the process of conveying the meaning of one language in another at lexical,syntactic and discourse levels by resorting to dictionaries and grammars.In the 1980s,scholars gradually realized that translation was more of cross-cultural communication than conversion of literal meaning.As one of the leading figures in the field of cultural translation,Susan Bassnett has made great contribution to the field with her cultural translation theory,which mainly covers the ideas that 1)culture should be the basic unit in translation;2)translation involves both intracultural and intercultural communication;3)the target text should function in the target culture the way the source text does in the source culture;4)principles and standards for translation can be different in order to satisfy different demands.As one of the important parts of traditional Chinese culture,shadow play was officially listed in Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2011.However,this ancient folk art has faced many obstacles in its development and dissemination in this fast-changing and rapidly-developing society.Therefore,it is our duty to actively promote Chinese culture both at home and abroadThe thesis focuses on culture-loaded words in the book Secrets o.f Shadow Play Culture-loaded words,on the basis of their contents,are divided into five classes including culture-loaded words on the history of shadow play,culture-loaded words on manipulation of shadow puppets,culture-loaded words on the characters in shadow play,culture-loaded words on singing techniques in shadow play,and culture-loaded proverbs on shadow play.Discussions will be centered around different translation strategies adopted for different types of culture-loaded words under the guidance of Susan Bassnett’s cultural translation theory.Finally,a conclusion of translation strategies is made concerning each type of culture-loaded words,in the hope that these suggestions may be helpful for future Chinese-English translation practice of materials related to Chinese culture.