2. The characteristics of Four-character Chinese idioms The characteristics of Four-character Chinese idioms embodies many characteristics of Chinese culture itself, such as the form of duality(偶对思维), concretization(具象思维), and showing respect to the ancestors(尚古思维).
2.1 The form of duality
The Chinese people showed special preference to the form of duality and changed it into the strong pursuit of symmetry beauty from of old. The logo symbolized ‘two’(二) in Oracle's(3100--3400 years before today) shows the positive and negative aspects of one matter. In Chinese Eight Diagrams(八卦), all the elements—the heaven and the earth; the wind and the thunder; the mountains and the lakes; the water and the fire—are in pairs.
Affected by this, we can
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This part can be divided into another three parts: the Equivalence Theory; the Domestication and Foreignization Theory and the Skopos Theory.
3.1 The equivalence theory
This theory was put forward by Eugene A. Nida(1914-2011). It is one of the most influential translation thoughts and theories in translation circles over the decades. Nida pointed out that the aim of translation should keep to reproduce the intention meaning of the original, rather than reproducing the actual words of the original. The theories tally with the translation requirements of Four-character Chinese idioms.
One Chinese idiom in concretization “洁白如雪” can be translated into English “as white as snow”. But in the process of cross-cultural translation practices such coincidence is rare to find. Most of the idioms in concretization should be translated according to the equivalence theory.
For some examples:
“穷兵黩武” can be translated into English “adopt a war like
When translation is processed, I encountered several difficult problems such as a word has two or three definitions and meanings, a word cannot be translated literally, a peculiar idiom, and proper nouns. Nonetheless, to state the grammatical order is different between Japanese and English. In the following section will present these problems, and how I solve.
The tale “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luch Wang depicts the story of three characters, Monkey, Jin, and Danny. They all have the problem of fitting into their new environments. Jin Wang has to deal with Asian stereotypes. Danny has to deal with embarrassment of his cousin. Lastly, Monkey has to deal with the fact that there is no position for him in the heavenly ranks. However, over time, these characters have to come together to fit in. Yet the question remains: what exactly about fitting in is the problem? Although Jin Wang takes the form of Danny to reject his Chinese roots, the embarrassment of Chin-Knee shows he cannot hide behind a false American identity, thereby delineating that race is the source of his problem.
The purpose of this research is to discover which of the four strategies suggested by Baker (1992), used in translating idioms and idiomatic expressions from English into Persian in a Novel titled “Kite Runner”. This chapter deals with methodology, which is the materials chosen for the analysis, the instrumentation, the procedures adopted to collect data, design of the study and data analysis.
Two approaches are used by the model; the mainstream method that focuses on the universal dimension of race and the identities of the ethnic
Synopsis Chinese culture has been evolving for more than one thousand years with one of the most significant influences being the development of the Han dynasty. This paper analyses the ways in which the development of the Han dynasty influenced Chinese culture and to what extent. Knowledge of the Han period’s impact on Chinese culture, is obtained through the analysis of written and archaeological sources depicting the Western Han dynasty (206 B.C.–9 A.D) and Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 A.D). Research related to Chinese art and literature was conducted in order to gain information on how they evolved as a result of the Han dynasty. Closer analysis of primary sources, written and archaeological, provide insight into the mindset of the time
Described as utopian in nature, the Chinese culture is often in pursuit for the perfect individual, a harmonious and structured society where the citizens as a whole create the ideal culture. In a collection of short stories entitled The Bridegroom, author Ha Jin documents this aspect of reality in homeland China. Primarily for the purposes of instruction and satirical verse, Ha Jin, shows how people are trying to find themselves in a society that focuses on the ‘whole’ of the country rather than the individual. He is able to interconnect this theme of individualism through four major stories in the book while presenting ‘Chineseness’ or satire of fictional verse as a way to focus on the changes throughout China
Religious and political ideas have served as the fundamental foundation to many early civilizations and settlements and Ancient China is no exception. The texts of the Ta Hsüeh and the Chung Yung clearly details some ideas and concepts of early Confucianism in Ancient China. These early Confucian ideas and concepts from the two texts, in many ways reflect the political, intellectual, and social context of ancient China. Although Confucianism is no long as prominent as it was during the times of ancient China, it is important to understand these concepts and how later Chinese Dynasty adopted it. Confucianism has developed and influenced modern China and also other East Asian cultures, customs, and heritages.
The traditional Chinese story called Monkey, Journey to the West, is one which reflects well the religious traditions of the country. The story is certainly not associated with one religion, but rather the Chinese culture. There are many references to Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist beliefs, which is what the mass of people in China identify their religious beliefs to be. This paper is going to explore how all three religious traditions are presented in the book, and what does that say about Chinese culture. As a person who is interested in learning about foreign culture, this topic sparked my interest, since it will explore how the Chinese culture is developed in result of the 3 main religions.
The military classics of China represent a long and historical culture of the Chinese people. They represent the societal concerns and developments of China and within these texts are recurring tenets that occupied the philosophy of China. Five tenets will be analyzed to show the Confucian relationship across various military texts.
3. The strongest part of the essay is that Chinese believe the world consist of two opposite forces which are yin, a negative force and yang, a positive force. This why they don’t drink icy cold water when they are eating a hot dish.
We have covered the general accounts of human nature found in Confucianism and Taoism in light of the historical backdrop of the Period of Warring States. Use your responses to the following general questions below as an opportunity to refer either to the Smith text and accompanying assigned scriptures(s), Smith video(s) on China, Confucianism, and Taoism, or any additional material covered in class. Look ahead to the next question on the chun tzu in order to plan on avoiding repetition of answers verbatim within each essay if there are areas of potential overlap.
Some linguists claim that dealing with the process of finding equivalence is the most significant issue existing among translation processes and that is one of the mains principles of Western theory of translation. Translation is a mean of communication and in order for it to be effective it is crucial to establish appropriate equivalence between source and target text. Nida defines translation as “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, 1982, p. 12) It is conspicuous that equivalence is one of basic concepts of translation which cannot be overlooked. This complex phenomenon often becomes a measure which helps to define the process of translation. Number of researches stress on the important role of the equivalence for the translation process and it is hard to hard to overestimate the role of equivalence in translation. Use of equivalence translation help people to understand each other and enables achieving communication goals. Achieving maximum linguistic, grammar and structural equivalence is inevitably linked with certain restrictions and limitations but the skilful use of equivalents can undoubtedly benefit the results of translation act. Despite different approaches, the equivalence is an important
China has about five thousand years history which is a very long period of time. Also, the Chinese civilization was growing with these periods of time and it will continues greater than ever. Many wars and unhappinesses were happening during this period. Although, the time has passed, the histories and the civilizations have not passed. These family virtues, serious, working attitudes, sense of justice and the great Confucian tradition have been deeply assimilated into the Chinese people. Some Chinese traditions are different from North American’s. The Chinese culture has many special characteristics which are very interesting for people to learn.
The language is a part of the culture and the carrier of the culture at the same time. The culture can not get away from the language. The language can not get away from the culture, either. It is impossible to study a foreign language text without considering the culture it embodied. Idiom is the essence and crystallization of a language and culture. It is the summary of life experiences of the people in a particular district. Usually, it is short but it can reflect the special features of a certain culture. Therefore, the accurate understanding of the English idiom does not only involve the phonetic conversion but also involve the western cultural conversion. It requires that the learner know the western culture background well.
The second half of the last century have seen a great advance in translation field ( translation studies discipline ). Which make many translation scholars emphasis on the importantce of knowing the translation theory for the translators since the translation studies become a discipline.Mona Baker stats”