A Report On C-E Subtitle Translation Of The TV Program Xiwang Chengdu(Excerpts)

In recent years,constructing foreign discourse system has become a hot topic in the field of communication and translation in China.Scholars have conducted extensive and in-depth studies on overseas publicity,subtitle translation and cultural vacancy.However,the combination of these three factors,that is,the translation of cultural vacancy in subtitles for overseas publicity,shows its uniqueness,because the translation choice for such cultural vacancy should be made under the three constraints at the same time: cultural stance,screen space and target audience.This report is based on the subtitle translation practice of some TV episodes of Xiwang Chengdu(Looking to the West).The report focuses on the difficulties encountered by the reporter in the process of translation.Cultural vacancy in this report refers to the deficiency of Chinese cultural background in the cognition of ordinary Western TV audiences.Based on Nida’s cultural classification and the specific linguistic reality of the text,the reporter divides the cultural vacancy into four categories: ecological culture vacancy;material culture vacancy;social culture vacancy;language culture vacancy.The difficulty for the translation of cultural vacancy in TV subtitles lies in: Although the translator has binary translation strategies(domestication and foreignization)and diversified translation methods(literal translation,free translation,transliteration,annotation,etc.)at hand,her translation choices,unlike the translation of other text types,should be made within the constraints of the limited screen space,cultural stance and the interests of target audiences.How to make a better translation choice for the cultural vacancy in TV subtitle translation? What is the standard? These are crucial questions to be answered.This report presents how the reporter,under the guidance of Skopos Theory,constantly reflects on and improves the quality of the translation,and explores the translation strategy and method suitable for the translation of cultural vacancy in subtitle translation of overseas publicity.This report mainly adopts the translation case study method,taking the translation of cultural vacancies in the subtitle translation of overseas publicity as the research object,making a descriptive study of the subtitle translation process of the Xiwang Chengdu.The translator’s translation choice must serve the interest and the demand for cultural heterogeneity and language fluency of ordinary Western audiences,and take the limitation of screen space into consideration,so as to realize the outbound translation purpose of Chinese local cultures.For the translation of ecological culture vacancy,the translator,while making a translation choice,must fully consider the similarities between Chinese and Western experience,the existing cognition of ordinary Western audiences,and the purpose of overseas publicity.For the translation of material culture vacancy,the translator,while making translation choice,must conform to the cognitive law and the existing cognition of ordinary Western audiences,so that the Chinese material culture can be recognized and understood by the target audiences.For the translation of social culture vacancy,the translator should make translation choice in line with his own cultural stance and the acceptability of ordinary Western audiences.A Word-for-word translation can not help to achieve the purpose of overseas publicity and absence of cultural stance may be counterproductive.For the translation of language culture vacancy,the translator,while making translation choice,must balance the literariness and information accuracy of the original text with the interest of ordinary target audiences.The case study shows that although there are binary translation strategies and plural translation methods available,the translator should choose a better translation strategy and method relatively definite and unique for cultural vacancy in TV subtitles of overseas publicity.After studying the four types of translation choice dilemma,the report comes to a conclusion that:(1)As to ecological culture vacancy: For the translation of geographical environment,the foreignization strategy and transliteration are mainly adopted;For the translation of production and life experience,the combination of domestication and foreignization strategy and transliteration,omission and annotation are often adopted;(2)As to material culture vacancy: For the translation of food culture,the domestication strategy and free translation and borrowing are mainly adopted in order to explain Chengdu’s unique food culture;For the translation of cultural relics without official translation,the strategy of domestication or the combination of domestication and foreignization and the method of literal translation,transliteration and free translation are often adopted in order to explain their functions and features;(3)As to social and cultural vacancy: For the translation of political language vacancy,the domestication strategy and free translation are mainly adopted for the purpose of conveying China’s political position in target language.Meanwhile,the translator should uphold its political stand.For the translation of intangible cultural heritage,with the purpose of promoting characteristic culture,domestication strategy,transliteration and free translation are mainly adopted;(4)As to language culture vacancy: For the translation of ancient poems,from poetic language to informative language,domestication strategy,free translation,interpretative translation and other methods are mainly adopted.Usually,ancient poems are integrated into the whole sentence in translation.For the translation of idioms and four-character phrases,the purpose of translation is to convey the meaning,not to pursue literariness,so the domestication strategy and the method of free translation and omission are often applied.In conclusion,translators should make better translation choices under the joint constraints of cultural stance,screen space and target audiences.Restricted by the three factors,only by bearing the translation purpose in mind,can the translator find the way out of the confusion caused by the translation choice from dual translation strategy and multiple translation methods.No matter how many translation strategies and methods there are,the translator only chooses the one that can serve the target audience well.In terms of the above four types of translation difficulties in this text,the translator constantly faced with the problem of pluralism in translation choices.The reporter always chooses the translation strategy and method that can better serve ordinary Western audiences,because only by serving the needs of ordinary Western audiences can the purpose of overseas-publicity translation of TV subtitles be achieved.All the translation choices are to be made so that ordinary Western audiences can understand and accept more Chinese culture with less effort.As long as the translator bears the translation purpose in mind and makes translation choices to achieve it,he/she will curb the confusion of dual translation strategies and multiple translation methods.