A Comparative Study Of Chinese And Foreign Museum Publications From The Perspective Of Mona Baker’s Narrative Theory

As China’s comprehensive national strength continues to grow,it is increasingly important for the country to create a new global image that matches with its international standing.In order to present a new image of China,it is necessary to improve the country’s international communication in which the pivotal role of translation should be noticed.Museums serve as a useful channel in international communication since people from other countries are able to learn more about China’s history and culture through the objects.Therefore,more efforts are needed to strengthen research on translation in museums so as to address the new situation.Until recently,there has been little interest in museum translation at home and abroad.Most of the studies tended to focus on the texts or other textual materials in the exhibition hall rather than on other channels of communication,such as website,social media,and publication.In addition,these studies failed to examine translation from the perspective of framing narratives,which is rather important in telling China’s stories through translation.Furthermore,there are limited studies on the parallel texts in western museums so that the features of these texts still remain to be explored.Therefore,using the parallel text comparison model,this study examined two museum publications,namely the National Museum of China（TT）and A History of the World in 100 Objects（CT）.The two books were both written by experts in the field of historical studies and gave detailed introduction of the objects,but they showed different features in terms of narrative.Thus,under the theoretical framework of Mona Baker’s narrative theory,this study analyzed the differences of narratives in the two books in terms of temporality,relationality,causal emplotment,and selective appropriation,which are the four core features of narrativity in Baker’s theory.Besides,this study also explored the strategies that may be applied to reframe the narratives in the National Museum of China to tell the story of China in a different way.The findings are as follows:（1）The TT followed a strict spatial order while telling the stories of the objects,which focused on their historical and aesthetic values.The stories were all told under the framework of domestic disciplinary narrative of China’s history and culture.In contrast,the CT was thematically driven with a focus on the political and cultural implications of the objects.The stories were told under the framework of the public narrative of the western world and the disciplinary narrative of the history of the world to engage the English speakers.（2）Two framing strategies,namely selective appropriation of textual material and repositioning of participants,are helpful in reframing narratives in the TTs.In terms of the selective appropriation of textual material,translators may adopt omission and addition to highlight the values that are shared by people in China and the West.In terms of the repositioning of participants,translators may reposition the readers by telling the stories of China under the framework of western culture and the history of the world.Besides,they can also narrow the distance between the storyteller and the readers through the change of deixis and register.