ISSN1712-8056[Print]
Cross-Cultural Communication
Vol.11,No.10,2015,pp.15-18
DOI:10.3968/7608
On the Translation of Chinese Political Vocabulary in Cross-Cultural Communication
LIU Daoying[a],*
[a]
SchoolofForeignLanguages,NantongUniversity,Nantong,China.
*Correspondingauthor.
Received2June2015;accepted29August2015
Publishedonline26October2015
Abstract
Effective communication is more demanding as with
Chinasrapideconomicandsocialdevelopment,andan
increasingnumberofpeopleareeagertoknowChina
more,especiallyinpoliticalsystem.Therefore,itisof
great significance to carry out in-depth study on how
Chinesepoliticaldocumentsandpoliciesareeffectively
communicatedinEnglishwithinaninternationalcontext.
TheappropriatetranslationofChinesepoliticalwordsand
documents is the first and most important step to
understandChinesepolitics.Althoughgreatachievements
havebeenmadeindocumentarytranslationfromChinese
toEnglish,potentialproblemsstillexist,affectingthe
understandingofforeignpeoplewithoutChinesecultural
background.Thepurposeofthispaperistoidentifyan
effectiveandappropriatetranslationstrategytoenhance
the effectiveness of political translation, especially in
Chinese political words and phrases. This paper
conductedananalysisofpoliticalvocabularytranslation
fromdescriptivetranslationperspective,andrecommends
a practical strategy to apply this theory into Chinese
politicalvocabularytranslation.
Key words: Political vocabulary; Descriptive
translation;Strategy
Liu,D.Y.(2015).OntheTranslationofChinesePoliticalVocabularyin
Cross-CulturalCommunication.Cross-Cultural Communication, 11(10),
15-18.Availablefrom:http://www.cscanada.net/index.php/ccc/article/
view/760DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/7608
INTRODUCTION
Globalization has changed the current communication
system.Interculturalencountersarebecomingcommon
ISSN1923-6697[Online]
www.cscanada.net
www.cscanada.org
andfrequentintheinternationalcommunication.Political
documentscanwellreflectsocialchanges,cultureaswell
asvalues.Thepurposeofpoliticaldocumenttranslation
liesinhelpingforeignerswhocannotreadandunderstand
Chinese,buttheyareeagertoknowmoreaboutChina.
However,thevoiceofChinahasnotbeenwellheardas
wehaveexpectedduetodifficultyinpoliticalvocabulary
translation.SovocabularytranslationfromChineseto
English is the biggest barrier in the international
communication. In order to offer an opportunity for
foreignerstobetterunderstandChina,translationplaysan
extremelyimportantroleinthecommunication,andit
servesabridgeconnectingwesterncultureandeastern
culture. Due to huge differences between these two
cultures, lots of misunderstanding and conflicts could
ariseinthecommunication,andmanystereotypesarestill
rooted without appropriate translation. Language is a
reflection of a culture, and there are lots of Chinese
politicalwordsandphraseswhicharenotabletobefound
withparallelonesinEnglish.Whenthereisnoparallel
vocabulariesbetweenChineseandEnglish,itwillbethe
greatest challenge for translators to convey the ideas
smoothly. This could cause even more negative
consequencesintheinternationalcommunication.Inthis
paper, descriptive translation strategy is proposed to
overcome these dilemmas to help people from other
countries understand China better in the international
communication.
1. DESCRIPTIVE TRANSLATION
STUDIES
Translation is usually viewed as a communicative
bridge between the source language and the target
languageintheprocessofinternationalcommunication.
Translation,asacommunicativepurpose,largelyrelieson
translation norm to help information transition and
interaction among speakers, translators and audiences
bothfromthesourcelanguageandthetargetlanguage.
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OntheTranslationofChinesePoliticalVocabulary
inCross-CulturalCommunication
Therefore,itisofextremeimportancetoestablisha
norminarangeofsocialsciences,fromlawandethicsto
social psychology and international relations (Hjort,
1992). In translation, a norm is also required to be
establishedinordertoimprovecommunicationonboth
sides,butthereisnounanimityastothistranslationnorm.
Toury(2001)definesthisnormascriteriaaccordingto
whichactualinstancesofbehaviorandatranslationis
evaluatedbasedontheadditionalconditionthatselection
among them be non-random. Translation in political
contextinvolvescommunicationbetweentwoparties,and
thetranslatorhastofollowacertainruleintheprocessof
translation when encountered with words which dont
existinEnglish.Touryproposesthattheacquisitionofa
setofnormsfordeterminingthesuitabilityofthatkindof
behavior,andformaneuveringbetweenallthefactors
which may constrain it, is therefore a prerequisite for
becoming a translator within a cultural environment
(2001,p.53).Toury(1995a)approachedtranslationnorms
fromtheperspectiveofatranslatorsdecisionmaking.He
considerstranslationnormsasperformanceinstructions
anddistinguisheddifferentcategoriesoftranslationnorms
atdifferentstagesoftranslationprocess.Touryproposes
to move on to the formation of general laws of
translationalbehaviorsasthefollowing:
Toputitdifferently:Thecumulativefindingsofdescriptive
studiesshouldmakeitpossibletoformulateaseriesofcoherent
lawswhichwouldstatetheinherentrelationsbetweenallthe
variablesfoundtoberelevanttotranslation.(1995b,p.16)
Tourys descriptive translation studies play a
significantroleincross-culturaltranslation.Thepurpose
ofthispaperistoexplorehowthistheorycanbeapplied
in the Chinese political vocabulary translation. Levy
(2011) argues that the relations between the source
language and the target language texts can be shifted
throughdescriptivetranslationstrategyinordertoachieve
communication.Holmes(2000)oncebelievesthatthe
innovativeorconservativepositionoftranslationwithin
oneculturalsystemislargelydeterminedbyitsrelations
with other cultural systems, and this can be achieved
through descriptive translation strategy. The previous
researchesshowdescriptivetranslationstudiescanhelp
establish cross-culture communication between two
language systems, even they have huge differences
between each other. The purpose of this study is to
explorehowdescriptivetranslationstudiescanbeapplied
inthetranslationofpoliticalvocabularyfromChineseto
English.
2. CHARACTERIZATION OF CHINESE
POLITICAL VOCABULARY
Politicallanguageisoneofthespeciallanguagesusedin
theinternationalcommunication,anditiscloselyrelated
to its cultural roots. Lexical use in political texts has
certaincharacteristicfeatureswhichdifferentiateitfrom
CopyrightCanadianAcademyofOrientalandOccidentalCulture
other types of texts, and they remain unique with
politiciansandpolitics.Politicalwordsandphrasesare
basiclinguisticunitstoformsentencesandparagraphs
andconstructcommunicativetexts.Theyareinvolvedin
political issues and documents used formally both in
writtenandspokenforms.Itisoneofthemostimportant
ways to obtain information about Chinese policies
throughnewspapers,TVprogramsaswellasconferences.
Accuracyisthefirstandforemostcharacteristicsof
political words. It refers to precision or exactness in
languageexpressions,anditisusuallyconsideredtobe
thetopruletodeterminewordselection.Politicalgenres
areformalandfixed,sopoliticaltranslationrequiresthe
greatestcarefulnessandaccuracy.Wordsandphrasesin
thepoliticaltextsaimatquickandeffectivedeliveryof
facts,ideasandargumentsinwaystheyaresupposedto
be the most effect. So political vocabulary cannot be
considered to be ambiguous and misleading, and they
should be firm and clear. For maximum effects, the
translators are required to make great efforts to keep
balance of speakers and audiences in the process of
transitionfromthesourcelanguagetothetargetlanguage.
Conventionalityreferstoconformitywithcustomary
practiceorgeneralagreementabouthowpeoplebehavein
certaincircumstances.Politicianspreferwordsbasedon
fixedanalogicalrulesandexpressionswhichhavethe
same meaning and indication. So word selection is
conventionalized or preformulated in the political
discourse.Politicianswouldliketousethosewordsor
phraseswhichhavetheexactsamemeaningindifferent
politicaloccasions.Itistheconventionalitythatdoesnot
allowcommunicationtobreakdowninthetranslation.
The principle of conventionality in political language
limits the translators possibility of expression in the
processoftransferringthesourcelanguagetothetarget
language.IntheChinesepoliticalvocabularytranslation,
wordsinthepoliticaldiscourseusuallyaretranslatedto
specificexpressionswhicharewidelyacceptablewithin
politicianswhileitseemsthatthistranslationdoesnot
really fit in with English grammar. For example, one
ChinesepoliticalphraseSangeDaibiaoistranslatedas
three represents based on the principle of
conventionality, but it is really hard for people to
understand, especially those from western cultural
backgrounds.Oneofthebestwaystotranslatethisphrase
is using descriptive translation strategy. It is usually
translatedanddescribedasThreeRepresents,theParty
mustalwaysrepresenttherequirementsfordeveloping
Chinasadvancedproductiveforces,theorientationof
Chinasadvancedcultureandthefundamentalinterestsof
overwhelmingmajorityofChinesepeople.IfSange
Daibiaoisliterallytranslatedasthreerepresents,andit
stillconfusestheaudiences.Soadditionaldescriptionand
explanationarerequiredtomakeupmoreinformationin
theprocessoftranslation.Withdescriptivetranslation
strategy,thepoliticalvocabularyhasextendedfromits
originalliteralmeanings,andprovidesmorebackground
informationforthosefromdifferentcultures.
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DistinctivenessisalsooneofthefeaturesofChinese
politicalwordsandexpressions.Distinctivenessrefersto
thequalityofbeingunique.TherearenoEnglishparallel
wordsintheprocessofChinesevocabularytranslation,
anditishardtoconductliteraltranslationforinternational
communication.Forexample,YiguoLiangzhiinthe
Chinese politics literally means One country, Two
systems.Thisisaconstitutionalprincipleformulatedfor
the reunification of China during the early 1980s. It
indicates Hongkong and Macau can retain their own
politicalandeconomicsystemswhiletherestofChina
uses a different political and economic system. Sige
Xiandaihua is literally translated as Four
Modernizations. Four Modernizations refers to
rejuvenating Chinas economy from four aspects as
agriculture,industry,nationaldefenseandscienceand
technology. They are goals set in the early 1960s and
enacted in the late 1970s. Sannong Wenti: Nongcun,
Nongye,NongminisliterallytranslatedasThreeRural
Issues:Agriculture,CountrysideandFarmer.Thispolicy
refers to three issues relating to rural development in
China. All these political words have unique
distinctiveness,andtherearenoanyequivalentwordsin
Englishpoliticaldiscourse.Klaudy(2003)coinedaterm
calledcommunicativeequivalenceandthiscanbethebest
formofequivalencethatcanhelpthetranslatortransfer
fromthesourcelanguagetothetargetlanguagewithin
political texts and documents. Communicative
equivalenceiscreatedtoconnectChinesepoliticalwords
anditsEnglishexplanationsduetonoliteralequivalence
intranslation.
3. TRANSLATION STRATEGIES OF
CHINESE POLITICAL VOCABULARY
Accordingtodescriptivetranslationstudies,focusliesin
what to translate and how to translate in the Chinese
politicalvocabularytranslation.Yan(1981)proposesthe
tripletranslationcriteriaofFaithfulness,Fluencyand
Elegancetoachieveanidealtranslation.Faithfulness
requiresthatthetranslationinthetargetlanguageshould
be faithful to the original text in the source language.
Fluencyistherequirementofintelligibilityofthetarget
languagetext,andthetranslationshouldfitinwiththe
grammarrulesofthetargetlanguage.Elegancerequires
translation should be esthetical. In his Evolution and
Ethics,onepartisdescribedas:
(having)fusedandgatheredthemarvelousprinciplesofthe
wholetextinmymind,lowerbrushtowritethewords,and,if
therenderingisagoodone,itwillsufficetocoverthemeaning.
Iftheprinciplesbehindthetermsinthesourcetextarevery
profoundandhardtoexplain,thenthecontextisusedtoreveal
themeaning(p.xi).
In the process of political vocabulary translation,
faithfulnessisthefirstcriteriatobeconsidereddueto
lackofequivalencebetweenthesourcelanguageandthe
targetlanguage.Inthisprocessoftranslation,descriptive
LIUDaoying(2015).
Cross-Cultural Communication,11(10),15-18
translationstudiescanprovideatheoreticalframeworkfor
languagetransition,anditisthebestwaytoexplainor
reveal the meaning of Chinese political vocabulary in
communication.
According to the norms of descriptive translation
studies,translatorsarerecommendedtolearntoselect
appropriatepoliticalwordsintranslation.Wordselection
isoneofthebiggestchallengesinpoliticaltranslationdue
tocomplicationanddistinctivenessofpoliticalwords.
Herbert(2000)emphasizesthatthereisnothingoutthere
in the real world that would conceptually suit these
politicalexpressions,thereisnoequivalenttermorword
in the everyday language. Political words must be
translatedwithinacertainspecificcontext.Reiss(1995)
considersthatequivalenceintranslationdependsonthe
type of text. Words and phrases, texts in one source
languagecanbeequivalentindifferentlevelswithits
targetlanguage.Forexample,BarongBachiisoneof
themostacceptablesocialvaluesinChina,anditwas
raisedasasetofmoralconceptsforcitizens.Nowords
canbefoundtohavethesamemeaninginEnglish,in
ordertopromotethisvaluedescriptivetranslationstrategy
isintroducedinthistranslationduetoitsdistinctiveness.
BarongBachiisliterallytranslatedasEightHonors,
EightDisgraces.Butthistranslationisstillcomplexfor
the audiences who dont have knowledge of Chinese
politics.Withdescriptivetranslationstrategy,thisphrase
canbetranslatedasEightDos,EightDonts.Thissetof
moralconceptscanbelistedasthefollowing:thehonor
oflovingthemotherland,thedisgraceofendangeringthe
motherland;thehonorofservingthepeople,thedisgrace
ofturningawayfromthepeople;thehonorofupholding
science,thedisgraceofignoranceandilliteracy;thehonor
ofindustriouslabor,thedisgraceofindolence;thehonor
oftogethernessandcooperation,thedisgraceofprofiting
attheexpenseofothers;thehonorofhonestyandkeeping
ones word, the disgrace of abandoning morality for
profit;thehonorofdisciplineandobedience,thedisgrace
of lawlessness and disorder; the honor of striving
arduously,thedisgraceofwallowinginluxury.Sointhe
Chinese political vocabulary translation, descriptive
translationstrategyisoneofthebestwaystosolvethis
problem.
TranslationstillneedstokeepChinesedistinctiveness
intheprocessofpoliticalvocabularytranslationfrom
Chinese to English based on descriptive translation
studies. In the newly released political documents, a
varietyofpoliticalwordsarecoinedtofitinwithnew
situations.VerbsaremoreusedinChinesetolinkwords
toconstructacoherentphrasethanpronouns,prepositions
and conjunctions. Translators must make sure the
structureofpoliticalwordscanbeeasilyunderstoodand
accepted by the audiences for a target language. The
descriptionofpoliticalwordsandphrasesisoneofthe
most important strategies to manifest its political
intentions. Krisztina (2014) suggests to conduct
comparativestudyofpoliticalwordsbetweenthesource
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OntheTranslationofChinesePoliticalVocabulary
inCross-CulturalCommunication
languageandthetargetlanguagetounderstandhowthe
respective political system work and to place the text
correctlyinthereceptiveculture.Thiscanpromotebetter
understanding on how political words are constructed
between the source language and the target language.
Thus it also can help people know more about the
mechanism of Chinese political verb selection. For
example,BaochiChixuDeDiquFanrongYuWending
isoneofthemostfrequentlyusedpoliticalwordsinthe
media,anditisliterallytranslatedasTomaintainthe
regionallong-termprosperityandstability.Verbsare
oftenusedintheChinesepoliticalwordsandphrasesto
manifestitspoliticalpurposes.Butwhenthisphraseisto
betranslatedintoEnglish,audienceawarenessisofthe
mostimportantconcernsintranslation.Sothispolitical
phraseisusuallytranslatedasMaintenanceofregional
long-termprosperityandstabilityinordertoreachits
maximum effectiveness. The verb in this phrase is
suggestedtochangeintoanouninthepoliticalphrase.
ChinesepoliticalwordslikeSantongcannotbeliterally
translatedasThreeDirectLinksandSanbuzouas
Three-step Walk. These words have strong Chinese
culturalandpoliticaldistinctiveness.Therearenoparallel
wordsandphrasesinthetargetlanguage.Translatorsare
suggested to translate these phrases with descriptive
translationstrategywhilekeepingChinesedistinctiveness.
SantongisusuallytranslatedasDirectlinksofmail,
transport and trade, and Sanbuzou as Three-step
strategyformodernization.
Based on descriptive translation studies, balance
shouldbewellkeptinthepoliticalvocabularytranslation.
Chinese political words are required to retain its
distinctivefeatureswhiletheyarealsorequiredtofitin
with its target language styles. For example, Yifa
Zhiguo is often translated into English with Yide
Zhiguo because these two Chinese political phrases
usuallyareputtogethertoconstructameaningfulcontext.
TheyaretranslatedasTheruleofLawandTheruleof
Virtuebasedondescriptivetranslationstrategy.Two
political phrases like Yige Zhongxin and Liangge
Jibendian are often translated One Central Task
(FocusingonEconomicDevelopment),TwoBasicPoints
(Sticking to Four Cardinal Principles and Policy of
ReformingandOpeningup).Eitherofphrasesdoesnot
makesenseinthepoliticalvocabularytranslation,and
theyhavetokeeptheirowndistinctivenessaswellas
Englishstyle.
CONCLUSION
Translation is a complicated means of
communicationThetranslationofpoliticaltextsaimsat
publicizingpoliciesandguidelines,introducingChinato
the outside world and also helping the foreign people
understandChina.Consequently,itisvitaltotranslatethe
politicalwordsappropriatelyandaccurately,especially
CopyrightCanadianAcademyofOrientalandOccidentalCulture
those political words with Chinese characteristics.
TransitionfromChinesetoEnglishisnotonlyachange
fromonelanguagetoanotherlanguage,anditisalsoa
transitionoftwodifferentculturesandvalues.Ignoring
the norms of descriptive translation could lead to
misunderstanding,evenmutualdistrust.
This paper tends to emphasize the importance of
selectingappropriatepoliticalwords,andtranslatingthose
wordswithChinesedistinctivenessbasedondescriptive
translation strategy. This translation strategy can well
establishabridgeconnectingtwodifferentlanguagesand
cultures, and solve potential problems posed in the
politicalvocabularytranslation.
This research also focuses on a practical political
translationstrategyfromtheperspectiveofdescriptive
translationstudies,andcontributestotheeffectivenessof
Chinese political translation. However, this study is
limitedtoculturaltranslationintheprocessofpolitical
vocabularytranslation.Thefuturestudywillexplorethe
effectivenessofpoliticalvocabularytranslationbasedon
descriptivetranslationstudiesfromculturalperspective.
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