Translation Strategies and Its Implications for Cultural Transference

Previous studies have shown how the translation of Chinese texts into English holds certain problems. With this research, the aim is to understand whether best practices can be found, taking into consideration different types of translation strategies. In order to find an answer, different translation techniques and literature on this topic are discussed. When translating, it is of great importance to keep in mind what the English reader appreciates and values. In order to understand which techniques should be used, the perspective of the reception theory is employed within this research. Moreover, cultural sensitivity is extremely important in the reception of Chinese texts for English readers. In order to conduct an evaluation, the different techniques are consulted by researching well-known and well-received translations. The four strategies used to do this are foreignization, annotation, reader-oriented strategy and radical alteration. These analyses of translations result in several implications for the use of translation techniques. Cultural sensitivity can be applied especially by use of annotation, the reader-oriented strategy or a combination of the two. These two strategies can most effectively contextualize the text for the reader, retain a pleasurable reading experience and transfer Chinese culturally loaded words into English.