Interpreting Chinese Culture-Loaded Sayings: A Case Study of Press Conference of Two Sessions

Abstract

As an indispensable means to elaborate on China’s development momentum and to set up global image, interpretation of press conference for Two Sessions presents the study essence of international publicity translation and the key problems lie in the culture-loaded expression translation. In light of the Functional Linguistics and Functionalist translation theory, the top-down hierarchic problem-solving approach is adopted for the original analysis. The target-oriented perspective aims at acquiring adequate version instead of equivalence between the source and target. The past decade example extractions cover the interpretation of the four-character set phrases, colloquial expressions, quotations and proverbs. Nine frequently-used interpretation types are concluded and analyzed in terms of the intended function and addressees’ reception environment by comparing the source and target cultures. Statistic results show that the compatibility between the two cultures may account for, to some extent, the method selection for interpreting practice in question. The more compatible of the relationship between the two cultures, the more tendency of preserving the original cultural image, and the more literal forms will be employed. And the larger the cultural distance, the more adjustments and adaptions would be adopted. With due consideration of the intentional function and addressees’ background, the versions may be readily accepted.