A Report On C-E News Translation Of Chengdu Panda Asian Food Festival

This report analyzes translated news text by the author and its edited version by the editor about Chengdu Panda Asian Food Festival(CPAFF)under the guidance of three rules of Skopos theory,namely skopos rule,coherence rule and fidelity rule,points out the differences between the translated text and the edited text,explains the reasons behind the differences,and gives insights into translators’ ability to take on news translation.The CPAFF kicked off on May 15,2019 and ran till May 22,2019.As the official website for the Festival,CPAFF website(foodfestival.gochengdu.cn)provided the latest updates and information about different events in both Chinese and English languages.The author took on an assignment given by the editor working at CPAFF and translated 20 pieces of news from Chinese to English,totaled 10,697 Chinese characters.At the time,the editor required speed,accuracy and readable target text.The translated text of the translation assignment was first proofread by the author’s supervisor to check spelling,grammar,choice of words and sentence structure.The revised version was then handed over to the editor who put the finishing touches to the revised text and published it on the website.However,the author finds the changes made by CPAFF editor are significant.The editor uses approaches,such as omission,addition,splitting as well as interpretation of information at lexical and syntactic levels.The analysis of the report is based on the three rules of Skopos theory.Under the skopos rule,the author analyzes the informative and publicity function.Under the coherence rule,this report focuses on coherence reached at lexical,syntactic and textual levels.Under the fidelity rule,the report points out that the translators’ fidelity to the original text depends on the purpose of the translation and their understanding towards the source text.From the translation assignment and case analysis,the author gains a few insights into news translation.This report states that translators without news translation experience may find it difficult to translate news due to their lack of understanding of the linguistic features of news.If translators are experienced in the field of news translation,familiar with translation approaches,and able to place faithfulness towards the event before the faithfulness to the source text,they can undertake the task of news translation.