A Report On The Chinese Translation Of John Chinaman At Home:Sketches Of Man,Manners And Things In China(Chapter One To Six)

This translation report task is written for Chapters 1-6 of John Chinaman at Home: Sketches of Man,Manners and Things in China.The book is a travel literature,which describes the author’s experiences in Hong Kong,Tianjin,Beijing,Guangzhou,Xijiang,Shantou,Xiamen,Fuzhou,as well as Shanghai and Nanjing and other places.Edward John Hardy served as a missionary from 1878 to 1908 and traveled to many countries.He also served as a missionary with the British forces in Hong Kong for nearly four years and made many trips to the mainland.This book is an account of what he saw and heard during his time in China.It is worth noting that apart from the author’s experience,he also writes about a foreigner’s observation of Chinese people,and also records the Chinese people’s view of foreigners in a separate chapter,which well reflects the social situation at that time and is rare in other travel literature.Therefore,finishing this part of the translation is helpful to provide sinology with multiple view and to enhance cultural confidence and national cohesionThis type of text belongs to the travel literature.According to the linguistic characteristics of the text,the translator used Katharina Reiss’ Text Typology as a guide.Reiss’ Text Typology theory is divided into informative text,expressive text,and operative text.The original text records the author’s experience in China,and most parts belong to informative text and other parts belong to the expressive and operative text.Under the guidance of Reiss’ Text Typology theory,the translator analyzed the text at the level of word translation,sentence translation,and chapter translation.In the case study,the core chapter of the translation report,the translator analyzed and summarized the difficulties encountered in this practice,and then analyzed the text with the process of translation and the translation methods,using translation methods such as amplification,omission,division,and conversion.At the same time,there are many long and difficult sentences in the original work,so the translator is also involved in the analysis of various long sentences,such as attributive and adverbial clauses.In order to preserve the original meaning as much as possible while allowing the reader to better understand the text,the translator worked hard to balance the original language style and the expression habits of the translated text under the guidance of Reiss’ Text Typology theory.The translator also tried to reproduce the style of the original text with pure and authentic Chinese showing China’s condition in the eyes of the missionaries.In the end,the translator summarized the gains and shortcomings of this translation practice report,hoping to provide some help for future translation studies of missionary travel literature.