Abstract Chinese dish has boasted a high reputation around the world. Many dish names have been translated into English to facilitate foreigners to enjoy the delicious food. However, it’s a common phenomenon that westerners normally focus on the nutrition of food, such as protein and vitamin. In contrast, Chinese diners are more concerned about the color, aroma, and taste of food, which together make the food perfect. Chinese food can serve as hunger killer, disease treatment, health promotion, relationship building and family value enhancement. The cultural differences sometimes may cause improper translation of Chinese cuisines, which often causes confusion, misunderstanding and even absurdity among foreign diners，which will do damage to China’s image. In this essay, some mistakes are listed at first, which include over transliteration without further explanation, over-literal translation and loss of the function of menu. Then some principles of translation are introduced based on the theory of the functional equivalence, such as metaphrase, free translation, omission and transliteration.61495

Key words: common mistake; translation solution; functional equivalence

摘要众所周知，中式美食在全球广享盛誉。为了让外国友人更好的享受中式美食，许多中式菜肴均有相应的英译名。但是，通常，外国人更关注食物的营养，如所含蛋白质，维他命等。而中国人更关注事物的色香。除了能扫除饥饿，中餐还有其他功能，诸如食疗，保健，建立友谊，增强家庭观念等。由于中英文化方面存在的种种差异，有些英译菜名并不恰当，部分菜名会引起外国食客的困惑，误解甚至荒谬的感觉，不利于维护中国的良好形象。本论文讨论中式菜肴常见英译错误，例如完全用拼音翻译菜名而没有加以解释；过度直译；忽视菜单功能等。本文给出一定的修改意见，指出常用的翻译原则，针对一些具体中式菜肴提出直译，意译，省略，音译等方法，以供参考。

毕业论文关键词：常见错误；翻译方法；功能对等

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

2.1 Brief Introduction of Former Researches 2

2.2 Significance of the Study 3

2.3 The Theory of Functional Equivalence 4

3. Common Mistakes in Translating Chinese Dish Names 6

3.1 Over Transliteration without Further Explanation 6

3.2 Over-literal Translation 6

3.3 Loss of the Function of Menu 7

4. Methods of Translating Chinese Dish Names 7

4.1 Metaphrase 8

4.2 Free Translation 9

4.3 Omission 9

4.4 Transliteration 10

5. Conclusion 11

Works Cited 12

1. Introduction 

     As is known to all, China has been attracting an increasing number of foreign tourists in the global village. Many of them have taken great interest in Chinese culture, especially Chinese food. While tasting the delicacies, they also wonder how and with what raw material the food is prepared. Good translations, hence, should help foreign diners enjoy the unique Chinese food, know the distinctive Chinese cooking methods, and understand the cultural modes embedded in the dishes. However, Chinese dish name translation is far from satisfactory. In the west, people normally focus on the nutrition of food, which means that their prior concern is the natural ingredients in the food they eat. However, Chinese diners are more concerned about the color, aroma, and taste of food. We cannot afford to deny the fact that language and cultural differences between the East and the West make it hard to translate Chinese dish names accurately and vividly into English. A proper English translation of the Chinese dish name has to reflect the connotation of Chinese culture and is easily to be understood by foreign diners based on the translator’s good command of both languages and cultures. But the existence of some English names of Chinese cuisines isn’t helpful to foreign diners, many of which are improperly translated and misleading.