Cultural Translation Research Articles

Домбра в калмыцком фольклоре и лирике ХХ – начала XXI в.: поэтика музыкального инструмента

The relevance and novelty of the article is determined by the fact that the poetics of a musical instrument was not the object and subject of research in Kalmyk folklore and poetry. Among the national musical instruments, the dombra retains its functionality at the present stage. The study of dombra as a thing and as a musical instrument in the translation of folk culture and art is of interest in a historical-functional, comparative-comparative sense when referring to both folklore and poetry, since it demonstrates the tradition, the continuity of the works of poets on this topic. In Kalmyk oral folk art, the dombra as a musical instrument is often found. It is mentioned in epics, fairy tales, legends, riddles, and songs. The material for the article were selected folklore works and representative poems of Kalmyk poets of the 20th – early 21st centuries. The purpose of the article is to consider the poetics of dombra as a thing and a musical instrument in Kalmyk folklore and lyrics to identify the continuity of traditions in the modern period. Results. The Kalmyks, unlike other Turkic-Mongolian peoples, apparently have not preserved folklore works about the appearance of the dombra as such, since it is considered a borrowed instrument. There are no such poems in Kalmyk lyrics. In Kalmyk folklore, the dombra is shown in its musical function; usually it does not have a plot-forming role. Among Kalmyk poets, poems about dombra are usually associated with the Dzhangarchi’s performance of folk epic songs, with folk rituals and holidays, singing and dancing. Depending on the time and space reflected in such texts, dombra is shown against the backdrop of historical and personal events, demonstrating a thematic range. A number of texts are dedicated to famous performing musicians and masters of dombra art. The analysis involved poems created in the Kalmyk and Russian languages, and also compared the original texts and their Russian translations.

Improving Translation Quality: A Chinese-English Translation Study on the Profiles of Tourist Attraction in China Based on Cultural Awareness

The bilingual profiles of tourist attraction are used ubiquitously and seen everywhere in China. Whether foreign tourists can have an accurate understanding of and keen interest in a particular tourist attraction hinges directly on the quality of translation. However, various translation studies in this area focus on meaning equivalence of language as a symbol, whose function remains at the level of linguistic symbols’ equivalence transformation. This article is mainly concerned with the profiles of tourist attraction enormously adopted in China and their cultural translation from Chinese to English as well as the improved translation output based on data analysis from the perspective of cultural awareness, in an attempt to explore a cultural translation strategy, namely, liberal translation integrated with cultural awareness. Based on examples personally gathered from Mainland China, it is found that the translation of tourist attraction profiles is mainly studied in a linguistically descriptive way, without enunciating the deep culture beneath the surface of linguistic forms. Through detailed analysis of these examples, the study also shows that using liberal translation integrated with cultural awareness in tourism translation is more explicable and intelligible to foreign tourists. The article concludes that cultural awareness must be considered in the liberal translation of tourist attraction profiles so as to communicate clearer and more accurate meaning to the target audience.

Visitor experience as translation

Abstract This paper explores the museum visitor experience as a form of translation. It argues that if a given exhibition can be seen as a cultural translation, then it is also true that the visitor’s reading of that exhibition constitutes a further layer of translation, as the visitor enacts their own transformation of the culture on display. The paper draws on intertextuality as a means to understand the ways in which this transformation occurs. It delineates a three-level typology of intertexts employed by the visitor and considers how the use of such intertexts constructs the visitor’s positionality in regard to the exhibition. The paper focuses on data from a diasporic museum, the Museum of Chinese in America, and applies a methodology involving analysis of TripAdvisor reviews and post-visit diaries to the online museum. The paper concludes that diaspora museums are a case in which the particular nexus of identity issues at work provide a more complex view of the visitor experience as translation.

Создание культурно-переводческого продукта для международной коммуникации

International communication is conditioned by modern features of social and cultural context of different regional cultures in the world. The focus of the study is to apply a culture-oriented approach to translation in order for international translators to create their own cultural and translation product for effective English-language communication. The relevance of the paper is due to the need to create on a cultural basis an advanced method of designing a cultural and translation product for the adequate transfer of linguocultural units meaning, consideration of translation text hermeneutics for international communication. The research aims at describing the technology of cultural translation to create a cultural and translation product. The paper presents a three-stage system of work on its creation, features of culture-oriented translation in international communication. The research materials are the results of the Interpreters’ Club translation and research activities at the Faculty of International Relations of the Belarusian State University. Research methods are culture-oriented and organizational-activity approaches to analyze translation activities. The author presents the main results of the research in the form of the developed three stages method. She draws conclusions on the meaningful conduct of intellectual translation activities and outlines the need for special training for translators and interpreters to create their own cultural and translation product for efficient professional international communication

KoBBQ: Korean Bias Benchmark for Question Answering

Abstract Warning: This paper contains examples of stereotypes and biases. The Bias Benchmark for Question Answering (BBQ) is designed to evaluate social biases of language models (LMs), but it is not simple to adapt this benchmark to cultural contexts other than the US because social biases depend heavily on the cultural context. In this paper, we present KoBBQ, a Korean bias benchmark dataset, and we propose a general framework that addresses considerations for cultural adaptation of a dataset. Our framework includes partitioning the BBQ dataset into three classes—Simply-Transferred (can be used directly after cultural translation), Target-Modified (requires localization in target groups), and Sample-Removed (does not fit Korean culture)—and adding four new categories of bias specific to Korean culture. We conduct a large-scale survey to collect and validate the social biases and the targets of the biases that reflect the stereotypes in Korean culture. The resulting KoBBQ dataset comprises 268 templates and 76,048 samples across 12 categories of social bias. We use KoBBQ to measure the accuracy and bias scores of several state-of-the-art multilingual LMs. The results clearly show differences in the bias of LMs as measured by KoBBQ and a machine-translated version of BBQ, demonstrating the need for and utility of a well-constructed, culturally aware social bias benchmark.

Research on the English Translation of Folk Culture-loaded Words in The Wedding Party from the Perspective of Cultural Translation

The Wedding Party is rich in culture-loaded words that are specific to old Beijing. These words carry unique cultural connotations that are deeply rooted in the traditions and beliefs of the Chinese people, In order to address this challenge, this paper aims to explore English translation strategies for culture-loaded words in The Wedding Party, specifically focusing on folk culture-loaded words at the material, social, belief, and linguistic levels. By examining examples from the text, we can gain a better understanding on how these words can be effectively translated while preserving their cultural connotations.

Conceptualizing museum translation

Abstract The scholarly debate in translation studies and related fields has extensively addressed the definition, scope, and limitations of translation. We contend that museum translation, which encompasses both the traditional “translation proper” as well as the non-verbal and multimodal aspects of translation, is central to this debate. Museum translation covers an extensive spectrum of perspectives, which contribute to the expansion of the concept of translation and the field of translation studies. It capitalizes on the intrinsic interdisciplinarity of museum studies and translation studies, fostering a profound exchange of disciplines and serving as an ideal foundation for discussing the boundaries of translation. It has a dynamic nature that can contract or expand to suit the researcher’s perspective and disciplinary concentration. A comprehensive examination of the intricate procedures encompassed by museum translation is, therefore, timely. In this article, we examine and compare different applications of this concept and provide an overview of how various disciplines and research foci have approached this area of study. We aim to contribute to the ongoing development of the concept of museum translation and its position in translation studies, a call further addressed by each author in this special issue titled “Museums as Spaces of Cultural Translation and Transfer.”

Exploring Cognitive Teaching Approaches for Inclusive Translation Online Classes: A Case Study During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study explored teachers’ lived experiences of teaching translation inclusively online for the first time during the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants teach English and translation in the English Department, College of Languages and Translation, at Imam Mohammed Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Data were collected using a 5-point Likert questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The study delved into the teaching approaches that teachers used to achieve course objectives, and the technology tools they embedded into the Learning Management System (LMS). The results indicated (73%) positive experiences, with (86.8%) finding the LMS effective for delivering instructional plans and (78.5%) reporting an increase in awareness of continuous technology education. The emergent themes of cognitive approaches included project-based instruction (89%), collaborative techniques (71%), conference-based strategies (64%), and constructivist approaches (50%). The results also showed improvements in students’ translation skills (80.7%), linguistic abilities (83.2%), social skills (78.5%), communicative skills (65.1%), and psychometric abilities (78.3%), indicating the positive effects of technology on cognitive domains. The findings illustrated that adopting effective instructional methods and integrating operative technological tools can significantly contribute to delivering enriched online content. The study recommends integrating Cultural Translation and Interpretation Studies (CTIS) and Cognitive Translation Studies (CTS) into professional development programs to enhance innovative teaching approaches for online settings. Consequently, the study contributes to language and translation education and technology by presenting an inclusive model that emphasizes the importance of incorporating translation theories, teaching methodologies, and appropriate technologies for effective online teaching.

The Transmission and Literacy Role of Cultural Memory of Traditional Houses in the Context of Rural Revitalization

This research is part of the “Ancient Xuzhou Houses in China: Cultural Memory, Symbol and Process Reconstruction in the Context of Rural Revitalization” project. Traditional houses contain a large amount of cultural value, literacy role, and historical memory. In order to sort out the transfer process more clearly between memory and people, this study set three research objectives. First, spatial memory transmission and literacy role needs to be studied and analyzed. Then, on this basis, we will further study the method of spatial memory transmission and literacy role. Finally, the appropriate medium for spatial memory transmission is analyzed. This study used descriptive analysis to summarize and discuss the results. The results show that spatial memory transmission and literacy is a process of maintaining and transmitting social and cultural values through the use and evolution of architecture and spatial design over time. Symbols in the memory space of residential buildings are containers for storing memories, just like a mobile hard drive that records relevant memory information. Residential buildings and people are like two devices that convey information and communicate through symbols. After comparison, in the dimension of cultural memory, symbols are more social and cultural and are more suitable as a medium for transmitting spatial memory and literacy role under cultural identity. This article explains the relationship between symbols and spatial memory, through spatial memory transmission to describe how common memories are shared and reproduced among collective members through cultural memory, literacy role and symbolic translation. It can transmit cultural and historical memories between different generations and acquires the importance of spatial positioning and environmental interaction in transmitting cultural memory.

A study on the C-E translation of metaphor in Fortress Besieged from the perspective of cultural translation theory

A study on the C-E translation of metaphor in Fortress Besieged from the perspective of cultural translation theory

Translation of Humor and Culture: Examples from The Big Bang Theory

Translation of humor and cultural references are the main challenges that linguists focused on audiovisual translation must overcome. The objective is to translate the source material into something that the audience will understand. Not all comical situations and expressions or cultural allusions are translatable literally or have an equivalent in the target language. To maintain the same level of impact and comic relief, these professionals make important decisions that range from omission to a complete transformation of each joke and reference. This paper contains an analysis of the translations into Spanish of four heavily charged instances of comedy and cultural references of the television series The Big Bang Theory.

C-E Translation Analysis of the Article Artistic Characteristics of Opera Character Paper-Cuts in Xinjiang in the CEA Framework

The Chinese government promotes the spreading of Chinese culture worldwide to enhance the soft power of China internationally. In this circumstance, translation of folk culture holds great significance since it constitutes an integeral part of cultural heritage, and through translation, a wider audience can appreciate these diverse cultures in different areas of China and better understand the Chinese culture in general. Based on the background of rural cultural reconstruction and the urgent situation of inheriting the precious intangible cultural heritage, the student translator took the article On the Artistic Characteristics of Opera Character paper-cuts in Xinjiang Area of Shanxi Province as the source text for her translation project. The framework of “Comprehension, Expression and Adaptation” is chosen to analyse the translation process: how the translator solved the problems encountered in understanding the text in source language, expressing the similar meaning in target language and adaptations made to bridge the cultural gap between the two languages.

The Translation Strategies of Chinese-characteristic Vocabulary from the Perspective of Eco-translatology—Taking the 2023 Chinese Government Work Report as an Example

The English translation of the Chinese government Work Report every year is of great international significance and function. It provides other governments and the public with access to key information about China’s policy direction, governance measures, and social progress. It is also an important means for China to showcase its national image, promote economic development and strengthen its global partnerships. This paper attempts to interpret and analyze the English version of the government work report from the perspective of Eco-translatology, and sort out the translation strategies of a large number of words with Chinese characteristics so as to provide new ideas and perspectives for the translation and dissemination of Chinese excellent culture.

Assessment of sexual and body esteem in postpartum women with or without perineal laceration: a cross-sectional study with cultural translation and validation of the Vaginal Changes Sexual and Body Esteem Scale.

We aimed to translate and determine cultural validity of the Vaginal Changes Sexual and Body Esteem Scale (VSBE) for Brazilian Portuguese language in postpartum women who underwent vaginal delivery with or without perineal laceration and cesarean section. A cross-sectional study conducted virtually, with online data collection through a survey with 234 postpartum women of 975 that were invited. Clinical, sociodemographic, and psychometric variables from the VSBE questionnaire were analyzed (content validity index, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct/structural and discriminant validity). Multivariate analysis was performed to explore associated factors with the presence of perineal laceration. One-hundred fifty-eight women experienced vaginal delivery, of which 24.79% had an intact perineum, 33.33% had perineal laceration, and 9.4% underwent episiotomy; and 76 participants had cesarean sections. Women with perineal laceration were older, presented dyspareunia and previous surgeries than women without perineal laceration (p<0.05). For VSBE, a high internal consistency (Cronbach's α > 0.7) was observed, but it did not correlate with Body Attractiveness Questionnaire and Female Sexual Function Index; however, it correlated with the presence of women sutured for perineal laceration. Moreover, VSBE presented good structural validity with two loading factors after exploratory factor analysis. VSBE also demonstrated discriminant validity between the presence or absence of perineal laceration. The presence of urinary incontinence (UI) (OR=2.716[1.015-4.667];p=0.046) and a higher VSBE total score (OR=1.056[1.037-1.075];p<0.001) were the only factors associated with perineal laceration. Vaginal Changes Sexual and Body Esteem Scale demonstrated appropriate translation and good internal consistency, discriminant/construct validity and reliability. Vaginal Changes Sexual and Body Esteem Scale total score and presence of UI were associated with women that underwent perineal laceration.

Transformations of the family institution: from the pre-modern to the metamodern

The relevance of the stated topic is due to the modern socio-cultural situation. On the one hand, the family is the most important social institution, the state of which determines the well-being of society. On the other hand, the modern family is experiencing a crisis, which finds its expression in a decrease in fertility rates, a narrowing of family functions, a growing number of divorces, etc. The purpose of the work is to study the relationship of the family as a mechanism for ensuring the translation and reproduction of culture with the processes taking place in society. The problems of the family are considered in the context of modernization processes in the world – in the context of the transition from a traditional society to a modern one, from a pre-modern culture to a meta-modern one. The theoretical basis of the research is the works of Russian and Western authors exploring the problems of the family in a historical context. The interdisciplinary nature of the work determines the combination of socio-philosophical and cultural approaches to the problem of dynamics and possible prospects of the institution of the family. The paper examines the causes of family transformation, the consequences of the family crisis for the development of society and civilization, as well as possible options for the future of the family in connection with the changes taking place in the culture of the early 21st century. The author concludes that the fetishization of personal freedom and the spread of values of self-expression in postmodern culture contradicts the values of self-preservation of society as an integral, unique education. However, the crisis processes in the 21st century undermine the sense of existential security that was inherent in the postmodern era and caused the decline of traditional norms. In the culture of metamodernism, there is a turn towards transcendence and spirituality, which can become a turn towards traditional cultural values, including the family. And this, according to the author, is the positive significance of the modern socio-cultural crisis.

Linguistic Variations Between Translated and Non-Translated English Chairman’s Statements in Corporate Annual Reports: A Multidimensional Analysis

As an important component of a company’s annual report, the chairman’s statement offers an important channel for the chairman of the company to report on the company’s performance in unquantified and textual terms. The Chairman’s statement serves as background for the shareholders, investors and wider stakeholders to have an overview of a company’s performance and activities over the course of one year. In this study, three corpora were compiled from the annual reports of listed companies based in Mainland China, Hong Kong and the United States. A corpus-based multi-dimensional analysis was conducted to investigate the linguistic characteristics between translated and non-translated English chairman’s statements. The findings indicate that the translated chairman’s statements of Mainland Chinese companies are informationally denser and more context-independent than the non-translated ones of American and Hong Kong companies. The results of a fine-grained analysis show that the translated and non-translated chairman’s statements have significant differences regards various linguistic features, indicating that cultural differences and translation might constitute important factors in affecting the textual profiling. Our study has yielded some new evidence towards a more comprehensive understanding of the linguistic differences between translated and non-translated chairman’s statements, and enriching the existing knowledge of translational language. This study also offers some practical as well as pedagogical insights into communication issues in business English and business translation.

Study on the Translation and Application of Hakka Cultural Symbols in Heyuan Tourist Food Packaging

According to the present situation of tourism food packaging design in Heyuan area, the problems such as lack of creativity, lack of cultural connotation and single function are found out. Color elements, modeling elements and decorative elements from Hakka culture are extracted and translated into tourist food packaging by means of design semiotics, and digital media technology is integrated to focus on functional innovation of food packaging. The design strategy of Hakka cultural translation in Heyuan tourist food packaging is proposed: “Modeling transplantation and theme narrative” highlight regional characteristics. “Visual presentation and emotional resonance” gives spiritual connotation. “Hakka culture and technology integration” highlights cultural inheritance, and applies it to the design of tourism food packaging, which is conducive to the dissemination and development of traditional culture. It helps to shape a good brand image, and further realizes the cultural value and economic value of tourism food packaging.

Authenticating otherness

Abstract Chinese painting is a foreign other to the Anglo-American world. This article explores how Chinese thinking on painting is translated into English and what implications it carries for the English translation of Chinese traditional culture in general. Early Chinese Texts on Painting, an academic book targeting academics and China enthusiasts, is taken as a case study. Using the notion of cultural translation as a theoretical foundation, this study finds that three strategies are used to translate Chinese painting into English: pluralizing meanings of key notions, contextualizing otherness through the recurrence of Taoist, Confucian, and Chinese literary ideas, and restructuring temporal and thematic ideas. These findings imply that cultural authenticity of foreign otherness can be approximated despite temporal, cultural, and linguistic distances. This study seeks to provide new answers to generic questions about the role of language in cross-cultural studies.

Brazilian Sinologist Reis’s Translation Strategy: Comparing His Portuguese Translation of Mo Yan’s Novel Wa With Goldblatt’s English Version

Amilton Reis is the first Brazilian sinologist who translated Nobel Prize Winner Mo Yan’s novels from Chinese into Portuguese. He has translated Mo Yan’s Bian (Mudança/Change, 2013), Sanshi nian qian de yici changpao (Uma corrida há 30 anos/A long run thirty years ago) and Wa (As rãs/Frog, 2015). This paper, based on first-hand examples, takes his Portuguese translation As rãs as the research object, and examines his translation strategy from aspects of cultural replacement, cultural omission, cultural dilution, cultural interpretation, cultural annotation, cultural literal translation, language beautification, language dilution, and so on. In order to better understand the characteristics of his translation strategy, this article compares his Portuguese translation with the English translation Frog by American sinologist Howard Goldblatt. The study found that, while Goldblatt’s translation strategy is basically “reader-oriented”, Reis’s translation strategy is more “reader-oriented” or “reader-centered”.

Translation Studies on Xi Jinping: The Governance of China—A Systematic Literature Review

This paper conducted a systematic literature review of the previous studies within China and other countries within the period from October 2014 to July 2023 with the purpose of investigating the research foci on the English translation of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China. This study revealed that scholars in Chinese Mainland mainly focused on three fields: research on translation strategies of political documents, cultural translation in foreign publicity translation, the external dissemination of political documents and the construction of national image. Besides, an emerging field with discourse analysis-related theories to explore discourse theory paradigms, evaluate discourse quality, and conduct corpus analysis of discourse has provided multivariant academic thinking in translation studies. Compared with Chinese scholars&amp;rsquo; studies, there was minimal discussion about the foreign scholars&amp;rsquo; exploration of the translation strategies and methods or other translation-related topics, which implied the urgent need of mutual academic communication between Chinese scholars and the foreign academic circles to promote the further development of Chinese political document translation studies.