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Besides, if the translations of dish names are improper, foreigners may feel confused about the ingredients, and they may fear to try the dish. What’s more, improper translations may lead some foreigners who have food taboo to eat what they are not supposed to eat，which may cause negative emotions and even cause health problems. And foreigners may associate the negative emotions with the city or the province where they had the food, thus that place’s reputation may be influenced.
1.2 Existing problems in the translation of Zhe cuisine
The proper translation of Zhe Cuisine is of great importance. People adopted different methods in the translation of Zhe Cuisine. Some people may prefer domestication while some insist on foreignization, but there is no definitive conclusion on which strategy is better. Some current translation has caused some confusion for foreigners and they failed to understand the meaning of the translation or they misinterpret the translated version. Sometimes the translation is not very proper since the translators translated only on the basis of the literal meanings of the dish, with no focus on the connotation of the names. Also, the translators sometimes lack the cultural awareness, thus the translation of the names does not convey the culture behind the dishes.
Nowadays, China enjoys a more important position in international society. Equally important is the promotion of Chinese culture in the whole world, including food culture. An efficient way to make Chinese food known to others is through translation. However, various translations about Chinese dishes may puzzle foreigners. And lacking of culture awareness is also a serious problem, since many translations focus on conveyance of basic information, caring less about culture. Newmark(1988) states that translation means rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text. It is may be simple since one can say something as well in one language as in another. But it may also be complex. Since by using another language you are pretending to be someone you are not, which requires translators deeply understand the cultures of two different languages.
In addition, lacking of the cuisine translation of specific province is still a problem as different provinces have their own features of food and cuisine culture. Most studies focus on the translation of the names of Chinese dishes. However, these studies are kind of overgeneralization because China is a vast land covering many provinces which have their own or even unique characteristics in food and food culture. Therefore, it is important for us to translate different provinces’ dishes names into English, thus to make local culture to be understood by more foreigners.
Finally, the research on the study of English translation of Chinese dish names is not as many as that of other fields and the study on the translation of Zhe Cuisine is a gap in this field. The author will discuss her understanding and present her study in this paper.
2. Literature review
2.1 Studies on the translation of dish names
2.1.1 Studies on the translation of dish names at home
Hu (2008) says that the translation of dishes is a new realm of translation research, also an urgent and tough task. In the 1990s, there were only 7 articles about English translation of Chinese dishes. In recent years, there are more and more translation studies on Chinese dishes.
He（2004）sates that most studies pay attention to the meaning of the translations, caring little about the culture. And this may lead foreigners to misunderstand Chinese culture. Consequently, translation should not only convey the meaning of the original work but also the culture behind the work.
The following is the review of former research related to the translation of Chinese dishes. There are two aspects studies on the English translation of the names of Chinese dishes and studies on the Foreignization and Domestication in the English translation of Chinese dish names.