Author: Shuobo translation agency Joined Time: August 7, 29 Number of hits: 1,175 times
Hong Kong Wen Wei Po recently published an article entitled "Three translations in three places reflect the cultures of the three places across the Taiwan Straits". The article says that there are three different translations of foreign words, especially names, in mainland China, Hongkong and Taiwan Province. If the translation of any one of the three places is excellent and appropriate, it will gradually be used for reference and adopted by the other two places. It not only reflects the cultural differences between the three places across the Taiwan Strait, but also learns from each other's strengths through mutual blending and infiltration, which is a phenomenon of cultural interaction between the three places across the Taiwan Strait. The so-called "three translations" refer to three different translations of foreign words, especially names, in mainland China, Hongkong and Taiwan Province. If you don't understand the "three translations", you will often encounter the dilemma of many chickens telling ducks. If the translation of any one of the three places is excellent and appropriate, it will gradually be used for reference and adopted by the other two places. The "three translations" not only reflect the cultural differences between the three places, but also learn from each other's strengths through mutual blending and infiltration, which is a phenomenon of cultural interaction between the three places.
At the just-concluded 2th Hong Kong Book Fair, the local book A New Story of the World, which tells how Cantonese has influenced China for 3 years, was well received. Several cultural figures from Guangdong and Hong Kong expressed different views on the diversity of language and culture when talking about Cantonese, which has been repeatedly used by China leaders recently. They pointed out that it was "done", "beaten", "paid the bill", "fried", "eye-catching", "lively", "funny", "T-shirt" and "fried". Some commentators pointed out: "The process of Cantonese's influence on China is itself a process of translation,' paying the bill' becomes' paying the bill',' fixing it' becomes' fixing it' ..."
The proposition that Cantonese's influence on China is itself a process of translation reminds me of another interesting proposition: "Three translations in three places reflect the cultures of the three sides of the Taiwan Straits". The author has been engaged in current affairs and cultural criticism for many years, and is quite interested in the phenomenon of "three translations" between the mainland and Hong Kong and Taiwan. The author believes that if you don't understand the "three translations", you will often encounter the dilemma of many chickens talking with ducks. Historically, "three translations" is not a simple translation problem, but involves all aspects of culture, customs and even politics. The phenomenon of "three translations" takes the translation of political figures as an example: Margaret Thatcher is translated into Mrs. Thatcher in mainland China, Mrs. Thatcher in Taiwan Province and Mrs. Daidrow in Hong Kong; Ronald Reagan translated Reagan in mainland China, Reagan in Taiwan Province and Reagan in Hongkong; Bill Clinton translated Clinton in the mainland, Taiwan Province was Clinton, and both translated names were used in Hongkong. George Bush translated Bush in China, Taiwan Province called Bush, and Hong Kong called Bush; John Fitzgerald Kennedy translated Kennedy in the Mainland, Kennedy in Taiwan Province, and Kennedy in Hong Kong; Henry Alfred Kissinger translated Kissinger from the mainland, Taiwan Province called Ji Xinji, and Hong Kong followed the mainland; Lyndon Johnson translated Zhan Sen, Taiwan Province and Hongkong in the Mainland or Zhan Sen or Qiang Sen ...
There are many differences in "three places and three translations". First, the translation in mainland China is a syllable-by-syllable translation. According to the custom of China's names, Taiwan Province often translates foreigners' names in less than three words. The mainland is too rigid in translating one syllable and one sound. For example, before the Cultural Revolution, a Russian drama theorist had a long translation name: "stanislavski", which may be too lengthy, but later it became the word "Stani", leaving out the wordy word "Slavski", which is easy to remember and catchy. It seems that the "Three Translations" can be used for reference by the mainland in terms of "simplifying the Sanqiu tree by deleting the complexity".
Second, mainland translation pays more attention to "the distinction between China and foreign countries", which makes people know that they are foreigners at a glance. For example, the name "Kissinger" is a foreigner at first sight, but Kissinger's Taiwan Province translation of "Ji Xinji" is hard to tell whether it is a foreigner or a Chinese. Taiwan Province and Hongkong translate foreigners' names, and most of them have China's surname. For example, Mrs. Chai Qier is called Mrs. Daidrow or Mrs. Sheqier, and both "Dai" and "She" are China surnames, but "Sa" is not. Previous governors, such as Yang Muqi, Grantham, Bai Liji, Dai Linzhi, MacLehose, Youde, Wilson, Patten, etc., also have China surnames. Christopher Francis Patten, the last governor of the United Kingdom, was translated into Patten by the British Foreign Office. He has both the surname of China and the name of "Stable and Kangtai", which shows that the Englishman is eye-catching, knows the power of Chinese, and knows how to do as the Romans do. At the beginning, Patten was translated into Patten by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, which made people puzzled. I don't know who he was, but it was soon changed to Patten.
This practice of translating China's name for foreigners is not created by Hong Kong and Taiwan. In fact, it was inherited from the mainland translation circle since the May 4th New Culture Movement. At that time, most of the foreign celebrities who were still in use had China surnames, such as Bernard Shaw, Chaplin, Washington, Lincoln, Dulles, Roosevelt, Marshall, Stilwell and Charles de Gaulle. In the 193s, the left-wing literary and art circles headed by Lu Xun were the main force in the translation of Soviet Russian literature at that time, and they also gave many Russian writers Chinese surnames, such as Gorky, Gogol, Pushkin and Chekhov. However, after 1949, the mainland translation circles emphasized the transliteration of foreigners' names, and the number of foreigners' names translated later was less than that of China surnames.
"Three translations in three places" also reveals the differences in customs, politics and culture among the three places. For example, Taiwan Province named Obama "Obama" because the word "Ao" means "bad" in Minnan language, and the so-called "Ao Bu" means dirty tricks and bad tricks. Another example is former US President Bill Clinton. Taiwan Province probably thought "Dick" was not a good word, and it didn't look like China's surname, so he named him "Clinton". It is worth mentioning that Mrs. Clinton, translated as "Hillary" in the Mainland, can't tell whether it is a man or a woman. Hongkong and Taiwan Province think that people are at least a woman, so they are translated as "Hillary" and "Hillary" respectively. In my opinion, Taiwan Province's translation of "Hilary" seems a bit like a teenage girl. After all, she is now more beautiful than her husband, and she is the Secretary of State. It seems more appropriate to translate "Hilary" from Hong Kong.
Another example is Che Guevara, a hall known as "* * *"? The idealist of "Quixote", it is rare for both mainland China and Taiwan Province to use it? Guevara's translation, while Hong Kong translated it as Cheguhuala. It seems that Hongkong and Taiwan Province are still following the translation principle of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance" in the early last century. In the 195s, China translated the African country "Mozambique" into "Mozambique's nose", which was really indecent. Later, it was changed to "Mozambique", which was more elegant. For example, the word computer is still called "computer" by some people in the Mainland, but it is translated into "computer" by Hong Kong and Taiwan. This translation is more appropriate and has now replaced the translation of "computer". In terms of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance", Hong Kong and Taiwan are also worth learning from the mainland.
China people's surnames are deliberately chosen by Hong Kong and Taiwan to translate foreigners' names, also for the sake of elegance. However, foreigners' names are too China-like, and sometimes they are "difficult to distinguish between foreigners and foreigners". For example, the mainland translated Saddam Hussein as "Saddam Hussein? Hussein ",called" Shadan "in Taiwan Province? Hu Sheng ",or" Saddam Hussein "in Hong Kong, is a China woman's name in any way. It's okay to translate a China name for a foreigner as long as it is faithful to the original pronunciation. The translation of foreigners' names in mainland China strictly follows the three principles of giving priority to transliteration, subordinating names to their masters and establishing conventions, and sometimes it is slightly better than that in Hong Kong and Taiwan, such as "Saddam Hussein? The translation of Hussein is more appropriate and accepted by Hong Kong. If the translation of any one of the three places is excellent and appropriate, it will gradually be used for reference and adopted by the other two places, which is a phenomenon of cultural interaction between the three places.
For a long time, a large number of Cantonese dialects have been going north, such as Touqitang, Shengmeng, being fired, being shortlisted, being wet and broken, having materials, working, etc., and a large number of Putonghua have been going south, such as being flexible, going to sea, being laid off, investors, informants, Lao Lai, original ecology, white-collar workers, jokes, etc. The "three translations in three places" not only reflects the cultural differences between the three places on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, but also draws on each other's strong points in mutual blending and infiltration.