3。1 The characteristics of Chinese menu 5

3。2 Cultural differences 5

4。 Translation strategies under the theory of functional equivalence 6

4。1 Domestication 6

4。2 Alienation 6

4。3 Literal translation 8

4。4 Free translation 8

4。5 Use comment and Pinyin 9

4。6 Simplicity and straightforward 9

5。 Conclusion 11

Works Cited 12

1。 Introduction

With the improvement of China's political position on the international stage, more and more concentration has been paid to China by our foreign friends。 Indulged in Chinese five thousand years civilization history and ancient culture, they have also been deeply attracted by Chinese dishes known as the “king of world cuisine。”

Therefore, the translation of Chinese food recipes has become a huge and difficult task。 However, because of the difference of Chinese and western food culture and cooking methods, the rich folk customs that bear by them, and the improperly translation, the translation of Chinese dishes still has many problems。 Some wonderful food which could have been coveted, however, after translation,they have completely lost the original style。 For example, “蚂蚁上树” has been translated to “ant up tree”, and “宫爆鸡丁” has been ridiculously translated to “government abuse chicken”。 Our foreign friends will be terrified by the sight of these recipes。 In order to avoid this kind of ironic error, this paper found out the current problems of English translation of Chinese dishes, and summarized several commonly used methods to translate Chinese dishes which based on the analysis of Chinese dishes and the differences between Chinese and western food culture under Nida's functional equivalence theory。

2。 Literature Review

2。1 Nida's functional equivalence theory来自优O尔P论R文T网WWw.YoueRw.com 加QQ7520`18766

Nida put forward the “formal equivalence” and “dynamic equivalence” in “Toward a Science of Translating”。 Nida said the "formal equivalence” “is designed to reveal as much as possible of the form and content of the original message”。 (Nida 32) However,the dynamic equivalence is based on target language。 Nida said that “In such a translation one is not so concerned with matching the receptor-language message with the source-language message, but with the dynamic relationship, that the relationship between receptor and message should be substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message。” (Nida 165) It means that the response of the information receiver in the target language to the translation should be almost the same as the response of the original source language receiver to the original text。 To achieve dynamic equivalence, the translator should choose the translation method that is most close to the original text。

In the “Toward a Science of Translating” that published in 1969, Nida voted for the dynamic equivalence more specifically。 He pointed out that “translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style。” (Nida 254) Translation is a method using the closest natural equivalent words from semantics to style to reappear the primitive information。 However, the word “dynamic” is easy to cause people’s misunderstanding。 Because of this, Nida tried to involve the dynamic equivalence to functional equivalence in the 1980s。 In “Language,Culture and Translation”, Nida defined “functional equivalence” as “The readers of a translated text should be able to comprehend it to the point that they can conceive of how the original readers of the text must have understood and appreciated it。” (Nida 28)