A Report On The Chinese Translation Of Things Seen In China (Chapters 1-6)

J.R.Chitty’ s personal travelogue Things Seen in China is a book about modern Chinese history(of the late Qing Dynasty,which lasted from 1840 to 1912).The first edition of this work was published in 1909.The edition chosen for this report is a photocopy of the 2008 edition.It consists of six chapters.It is a short but inclusive book that records many aspects of China during the early twentieth century,including family,social,commercial,artistic,literary,agricultural,and religious life of the Chinese.It is an important reference work for various disciplinary fields including folklore,sinology,and history.The translator has therefore completed the translation of the text part of it based on careful investigation and verification.This report deals with a comprehensive analysis of the translation of it,which belongs to Chinese folklore translations as well as to the translation cause of China.This practical translation is based on Newmark’s Communicative Translation Theory: In the process of translation,the translator can adjust the sentence structure of the source text to a certain extent.The translator can annotate and clarify the source text in some way and correct the fallacies of the source text.And the translator ought to use various translation techniques to remove the reading barriers for the readers of the target language,presenting them with a smooth and fluent translation,without leaving any doubts or obscurities for the readers.Communicative translation emphasizes the reaction of the readers,making the original language subservient to the target language and the culture of the target language,and focusing more on the communication effect rather than the mere content.Through this practical translation,the translator clearly realized that a good translator must fully understand the similarities and differences among the different languages,master different translation techniques to resolve cross-linguistic and cross-cultural differences and combine translation theory and translation practice to continuously improve the quality of the translation,providing more faithful and fluent translations for the readers of the target language.