Translation Report On Recognition Of Chinese Classical Culture (Excerpt)

China is one of the countries in the world that enjoys the oldest culture beginning over 5000 years ago.As an important part of the Chinese classical culture,Chinese traditional opera,a form of musical theatre in which music is one among several elements rather than a governing factor,is one of the most popular forms of entertainment.This translation practice chooses chapter 5 of Recognition of Chinese Classical Culture as the source text,which introduces different kinds of traditional Chinese opera and gives a thorough review of its historical development with uniqueness.There are numerous terms for the roles and characters in traditional Chinese operas as well as expressions related to Chinese culture and historical figures.Concerning that traditional opera plays a vital role in facilitating Chinese cultures going global,the translation report is carried out under the guidance of the theory of memetics,according to which,information from one host(source text)can be more repeatedly and rapidly transmitted in the form of super memes and therefore readily accepted by a new host(target readers).Specifically,there are five kinds of super memes used in the translation pratice to make cross-cultural communication more effective and lessen cultural barriers at the same time.The translation process is as follows.1)At the lexical level,the super memes of“Free-vs-literal” and “All-writing-is-translation” are applied to the translation of specific terms related to opera,the name of repertories and culture-loaded words on the basis of accurately conveying the meaning of the original text.2)At the syntactic level,the super memes of “All-writing-is-translation” and “equivalence” are applied to solve the problems posed by long complex sentences and couplets.While translating those sentences,the translator takes the information of the sentence as the main line and reorganizes the sentence structure according to the readers’ reading habits,making the translation more coherent and smooth.While the translator translated the couplet,the semantic principle is observed;that is,placing the meaning of the couplet as the primary concern with the purpose of transferring the most important information to readers and helping memes spread more quickly.3)At the textual level,more attention is paid to the typical Chinese information and style of the original text.Using the super meme of“equivalence” as a guide,the translator highlights what can best represent the features of traditional Chinese opera in the translation,combs the logic that runs throughout the original text,and carefully chooses the words in accordance with the original text style.With the deepening of Chinese culture going global,the field of translation now faces a challenging question: what kind of Chinese culture does China want to present to the world? Chinese traditional opera can serve as a prioritizing choice as so many cultural and historical elements are embedded in the series of plays and the performance of actors and actresses.In this case,the current translation practice can offer some insights to help the world better understand the development of traditional Chinese culture and accept Chinese values.