The Commentary Translation of China’s International Publicity Documentaries — A Case Study of A Bite of China I

Abstract

As a particular kind of audio-visual programs, Chinese Documentaries for international publicity, which aims at spreading China’s voice and facilitating the understanding of China, have played a significant role in cultural communication. Compared with other translation activities, its translation has some unique features. This paper takes China’s culinary culture documentary A Bite of China I as case, through descriptive method, it comes to the following conclusions: in order to achieve better communication through publicity documentaries, the translator should bear in mind the transferring means, purpose, and target audiences. Firstly, such translation can be included in the field of Audio-visual Translation, so the synchronization between image and sound is the first concern; secondly, In order to show the real China and transmit Chinese culture to the fullest extent possible, the translators had better be source-language centered and translate those cultural specific words literally. Thirdly, to form a coherent and cohesive text, the appropriate transformation of thematic progression is an effective way to achieve the naturalness and acceptability of the target language text.