Recharacterization Of Mencius In Multimodal Translation

Mencius,as the epitome of Confucian culture,is considered to be representation of Chinese culture.It is a collection of conversations of Mencius,the philosopher,and his disciples,reflecting his perspectives on politics and morality.Excellent multimodal translation of Mencius can help the overseas spread of Chinese culture,enhancing China’s soft power.In this study,Mencius is selected as the source text and Mencius Speaks: The Cure for Chaos by Tsai Chin Chung and Brian Bruya as the target text,with a ChineseEnglish Multimodal Parallel Corpus of Mencius.In all,34 stories are picked,including125 comic panels,182 clauses(in ST)and 238 clauses(in TT)for analysis.This study aims to explore how images of Mencius are re-characterized from ST to TT,guided by the theories of systemic functional linguistics and visual grammar.It has been found that Mencius’ images are shifted or strengthened in the process of multimodal translation as follows: a humble mentor to a brave lecturer when talking with people of higher status;a didactic master to a sensitive philosophical hermit when speaking to himself;be a more righteous person when talking with people of moral corruption;a strict and detached master to a friendly and elegant mentor when speaking with his disciples;an outside observer to a modest experiencer when talking with people Mencius honors.And also the tenor relationships between readers/writers and speaker/audience have been changed.This thesis broadened the scope of multimodal translation theories,helping accelerate the agenda of Chinese classics translation and the spread of Chinese culture.