Study on translations of words with Chinese.character istics in The Economist

Ding Xueyuan

Abstract:This paper is going to analyze the principles used for translation and give exact exiunples oftranslation of words with Chinese characteristics in The lk:onwist. Thus it can help to introduce China'slatest change in an accurate way. build a bridge to fac:ilitate iutual-understanding and communication,findaway to clear iisunderstanding and coniunicative barriers.Keywords:The Econoiist;words with Chinese characteristics;translation principles.

中圖分類號：H315.9；1046

文獻標識碼：A

文章編號：1005-5312 (2020) 20-0055-02

一、The Economist and China

When comes to covering China, how to translatewords and expressions with different background is abig problem, especially those Neologism newly appearedon the net. The Economist holds a very open mind towards China and its rising. In January 2012, a newColum named 'China' has been set up.There are average3-4 essays about China per issue, compared with otherdeveloping countries, it gets the most attention andpriority.

二、Origins of words with Chinese Character-istics in the Economist

Words with Chinese characteristic in The Economistcan be roughly classified into four categories: Neologism emerges in the economic development, examples are“special economic zones”經(jīng)濟特區(qū)，“Innovation-drivennational”創(chuàng)新型國家“commercialization of education"教育產(chǎn)業(yè)化，“common prosperity”共同富裕：Neologism associated with Chinese's politic,like廉政建設(shè)“build aclean and honest government”兩岸關(guān)系“cross-straitsrelations”：全國人大代表“deputy of the National People's Congress”; Neologism created by Chinese netizen,Such as: “Shanzhai”山寨，“Shengnu”剩女，“Geili”給力，“Gaofushuai”高富帥：Words or expressions relevant toChinese traditional culture and customs,

like “closeas lips and teeth”， 唇齒相依， “nine dragons stirringup the sea”九龍鬧海，a reference to the off-springsof the dragon king in Chinese legend and so on.

三、Analysis of Translation in the Economist

（一）Doiestication and Foreignization

Domestication and foreignization are two basicstrategies in translation, which are both culture-ori-ented. In the process of collecting samples in The E-conomist, the author found that foreignization, in-stead of Domestication is applied much more in trans-lation words or expressions with Chinese characteris-tics.

(二)Foreignization trend in C-E translation in TheEconoiist

Foreignization aims at preserving as much as pos-sible the original flavor (both linguistic and cultur-al features) of the source language in order toachieve the interaction of culture in the process oftranslation.lt is used when translators try to intro-duce the foreign culture to readers who are interestedto learn alien traditions and customs, which is justin accordance with the aim of The Economist in cover-ing China. The following points are the reasons.

Firstly, neologisms with strong Chinese character-istic are representing new things, new changes happen-ing in China. They are also reflections of new cultur-al phenomena in China. It is hard to find equivalence.

Secondly, with the strengthening of the China'snational power and rising of its international status,Chinese culture has attracted more attention. Thoseforeign readers who want to know more about China,will embrace foreignizing translation.

Thirdly, the introduction of Chinese culture andcustom will enrich the target language culture pro-foundly and at the same time, it also help to promoteChinese culture.

四、Translation methods

(一) Transliteration

For most of the names, names of places and insti-tutions and cities and roads, names of magazines ornewspapers or books, this method is adopted frequent-ly. Wahaha Group哇哈哈集團Beijing JiaoTong university北京交通大學Tsinghua universities清華大學．Caijing《財經(jīng)》Jinghua Times《京華時報》"Li Kele ProtestsDemolitions”《李可樂抗拆記》．

（二）Literal Translation

This happens when there are culture vacancies orlexical vacancies--no equivalent concepts or words existing in English. However, for most of the time,readers can understand the actual meaning through theliteral meaning or semantic association. In order toraise reader's notice, this kind of words or expressions often been put in brackets. “indigenous innovation”自主創(chuàng)新(P32 The Economist January 19th 2013)HPaper tiger and Spring festival”紙老虎和春節(jié)(P26 TheEconomist April 27th 2013)are listed as example.

（三）Free translation

Free translation pays less attention to the alterations of the original pattern and the sentence structure. It gives priority to retaining the originalspirit and meaning. Due to culture difference and tomake it easy for readers to understand, translatorsare likely to choose free translation as the primaryoption. “Privatization”住房改制 (P71 The EconomistFebruary 23nd 2008), commercialization of education”教育產(chǎn)業(yè)化(P 51 The Economist August 12 th 2006).

（四）Transliteration with explanation

Words are the most fast-changing element in language, and they are also most easily affected by thesocial environment. The popularization of the Internetin recent years as well as the netzens' increasing active involvement in public life, a large number of neologism with Chinese characteristics have sprung up,enriching the Chinese language and meanwhile spread tooutside world through foreign media. And the method oftransliteration with explanation is used widely.

“Sina weibo新浪微博，china's Twiiter-like microblog service” “shengnv剩女， singles who are in theirlate 20s and over 30s”“Digouyou 地溝油，illegal cooking oil or drainage/gutter/swill-cooked oil”are listed as examples.

（五）Literal Translation with explanation

“to give red packets， 送紅包folding money in redpaper bag to congratulate or greet or show gratitude”(P23 The Economist August 21st 2004) ,“Close as lipsand teeth， 唇齒相依 (P25 The Economist February 2nd2013), ”nine dragons stirring up the sea, a referenceto the offsprings of the dragon king in Chinese legend”九龍鬧海(P32 The Economist March 16th 2013)

五、Conclusions

Generally speaking, this paper finds out that whenit comes to the translation of a new phrase originating from China, The Economist adopted foreignizationmore than domestication, and under the guidance of thetranslation principle of foreignization, and writersof The Economist resort to different ways of specifictranslation methods to translate all the words withChinese characteristics.

Consideration to Chinese culture and history hasbeen put on top priority to avoid misunderstanding. Nomatter what translation method is employed, the translators themselves shall first make sure that they havea deep understanding of the connotation of words. Conciseness and vividness may be left for further discussion while accuracy shall be given top priority.

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作者簡介：丁雪緣(1990-)，女，湖北黃石人，助教，翻譯碩士，湖北師范大學文理學院人文學部英語教師，研究方向：商務(wù)英語教學及翻譯研究。