A Practice Report On The C-E Translation Of Book Series Of Intangible Cultural Heritage In Northeast China-Folk Etiquette And Customs(Chapter 2)

Northeast China is known as the land named “white mountains and black waters”with the unique and distinctive history and culture of the frontier.Against the background that a new round of revival is pursued in Northeast China,the accurate translation from Chinese to English of books with folk customs plays a critical role during the cross-cultural communication.This translation task is a C-E translation of Book Series of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Northeast China—Folk Etiquette and Customs.The translator selects the second chapter of this book to translate,namely the Folk Birth Etiquettes and Customs of Northeast China.Based on an in-depth analysis of the text,the translator chooses the Functional Equivalence Theory proposed by Eugene A.Nida as the guiding theory and tries to minimize the comprehending deviation of target readers in the culture of the source text,so as to help the target readers understand the folk customs of Northeast China better.The translator also analyses the aspects of the lexical,the syntactical,and the textual level by case analysis method in this report.For lexical translation,the translator adopts conversion and explanation to translate the words which contain cultural features to convey the deep cultural information and transliteration with annotation to retain the cultural characteristics in Northeast China.For syntactical translation,the translator chooses division,inversion and voice conversion to express the implications accurately for many simple sentences,sentences without subjects and long sentences in the source text.For textual translation,the translator analyses the logical structures throughout the translation process to achieve cohension and coherence.The translator also tries to adapt to the target readers in pursuing “semantic equivalence” over “formal equivalence” during the whole process,analyses the characteristics of the folk culture text of Northeast China,and chooses some translation methods in order to achieve the “closest natural equivalence”between the source text and the target text.This translation practice can not only enhance the literary translation of intangible cultural heritage in Northeast China,but also provide a new way for the target readers to understand the folk customs and realize the optimistic and resolute ethnic spirit of people in Northeast China.Besides,this translation practice aims to provide some reference for researchers who engaged in folk culture text translation and make significant contributions to the “go global” strategy of Chinese culture.