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In the first part, the paper gives a brief introduction about the topic. In the second part, the paper refers to the differences of Chinese and west cuisine culture. In the third part, the paper refers to some translation principles. In the fourth part the paper provides some methods of translation. In the last part, this paper makes a conclusion about the main content of the topic.
Translation of Chinese cuisine names is an indispensable part of Chinese cuisine culture, Nida defines culture as “the totality of beliefs and practices of a society” (Nida 78). Newmark defines culture as “the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a peculiar language as its means of expression” (Newmark 94). In fact, the study on English translation of Chinese cuisine has drawn some scholars’ attention; researches are conducted from different aspects, but many studies merely focus on the mistakes in the translation and provide some translating methods, the culture behind some Chinese cuisine names are neglected. Now that China possesses various regional cooking schools that are popular both at home and abroad, cuisine culture still needs further studying and exploring.
II. Differences Between Chinese and Western Cuisine Culture
Cuisine culture is a particular and widespread social culture. For it tends to present different characteristics of flavors and styles depending on different kinds of materials, cooking methods, regions and nations. And it is widely spread in that it is not only pervasive in the life of human beings of all races, but also involves in various fields such as politics, economy, philosophy and art. Generally speaking, food culture encompasses the food notions, food tradition and customs, raw material, cooking techniques, utensils, table etiquette, food therapy and relevant allusions, folk tales and etc (Hall 89).
Chinese cuisine as a whole has certain common features，which stress on the four major characteristics of Chinese cuisine, namely color, taste, aroma and form plus another important feature of tool which refers to the bowl or plate used to serve a dish. According to Chinese traditional culture, cuisine is a special kind of art, reflecting a sense of beauty and harmony in aesthetics. Therefore, every detail of Chinese cuisine should be finely made and designed to give customers not only good taste, but a visual enjoyment. Then, Chinese dishes are always known for their combination of scrumptious taste and aroma with pleasant color and form in harmony plus elegant tableware.
Western cuisine as a whole shares some important common features. While maintaining their inpidual uniqueness, they all place a heavy emphasis on three major characteristics, i.e. nutrition, freshness, and easiness to prepare particularly with varying degree in comparison with Chinese cuisine. These factors have a close connection with the national characters and dispositions of Western nations. Nutrition is the fundamental and primary concern of any Western cuisine. To a large extent, freshness ensures good nutrition. Of course, in Western cuisine, also balance of food structure is an important factor contributing to good nutrition. Easy preparation expressly demonstrates the practical nature of Western nations compared to that of the Chinese. Compared with the features of Chinese cuisine which pays more attention to fine details，Western cuisine seems to heed more certain simple and practical values of making food, which are consistent with the independent, inpidualistic and pragmatic characters of Western nations.