The discussion will detailedly analyze the cases and inquire into some appropriate translating methods with the comparison of Chinese and English version of the government work report。 The author hopes to make contributions to the common strategies to translating publicity materials。
2。 Literature Review
2。1 International publicity translation
In the today’s world, the competition among countries is gradually shifting from the competition of comprehensive national strength represented by economy and science and technology to the competition of soft power of culture。 To a certain extent, the competition of soft power is done through external propaganda。 Language is the first means of communication, but also one of the national soft power, so translation is indispensable。 External propaganda requires a “re-conceptualization”, “re-expression” and “re-construction” rather than a general translation when it is turned from a persuasive object to a western one。 International publicity translation directly determines the effect of China’s external communication, but also a country’s level of external communication and the embodiment of human construction environment。 Improving the quality of publicity translation has become a topic of great theoretical and practical significance(Fan and wang 97-98)。 Therefore, the importance of global communication urges every one of our nation and inpiduals to promote the international cultural communication in order to shape a good figure of the state, and to foster a sound and safe international environment for the prosperity of a harmonious society。 Up to this point, the smooth carryout of propaganda affairs depends on the effective publicity translation。
The Chinese-English translation of publicity materials is quite frequent and extremely important under the background of globalization。 It can be understood from a broad and narrow perspective。 Broadly speaking, it covers almost all the translation activities, including all trades and professions, all levels of departments which are engaged in external publicity-related translation activities, that is, the translation concept of “big publicity”。 Narrow sense of external translation, including a variety of media reports, politics, literature, government documents, the introduction of government and enterprises, public signs, information and other practical style of translation。 Publicity translation is a special form of translation, which has its own characteristics。 The first prominent feature of publicity translation is to translate a large amount of information about China into a foreign language and to express and disseminate it through various media。 Then let foreigners understand the information correctly and thus know China better。 The second trait of publicity translation is that its target readers are foreign readers, but not Chinese。 As a result, Only by fully understanding and keeping the difference of target readers in mind, can the translators of publicity accomplish the task of “letting China go to the world and let the world know about China”。 Huang Youyi also points out that on translating the publicity materials, the “three close to” principle ought to be uphold to add emphasis to our global communication in aspects of being closing to the current situation in China, being closing to the demands from the audience abroad to the information of China, and being closing to the mind habits of the audience abroad。(Huang 27-28)
2。2 Skopos theory
Skopos theory (German: Skopostheorie) is a concept from the field of translation studies。 It provides an insight into the nature of translation as a purposeful activity, which is directly applicable to every translation project。
It was established by the German linguist Hans Vermeer and comprises the idea that translating and interpreting should primarily take into account the function of both the source and target text。 It differs from the conventional translation theories in that the conventional model mainly centers on the original text and is oriented towards the linguistic aspect of translation, while Skopos theory breaks through the conventional model and focuses on the function and practicability of the original text instead。