Translating decoration and symbolism of Chinese architectural works in tourism texts : a case study of Nan Hai Ming Zhu Tian Fu Gong (Pearl of the South Seas——Thian Hock Keng)

Abstract

For more than a thousand years, art has been one of the main features of traditional architectural works in China before it widely influenced East Asia. The underlying significance of this art is rich in cultural connotation. This project takes on the translation of architectural decoration and symbolism found in a 180- year-old local Chinese temple, Thian Hock Keng. Thian Hock Keng is a heritage site popular among local and foreign visitors, hence translation would also involve the perspective of tourism texts. This project seeks to address the challenge in seeking a balance between the translation of culture-specific items (CSI) in architectural arts and features as well as tourism texts. Translation was conducted on a Chinese publication titled《南海明珠—天福宫》 (Translation: Pearl of the South Seas—Thian Hock Keng). Before analysing, sample texts from another publication of a similar genre titled《园冶》 (The Craft of Gardens) were also selected for analysis. The thematic analysis provided a fundamental idea on the strategies the translator adopted for CSI translation. Selected sections from《南海明珠—天福宫》were then translated and analysed. The analysis revealed despite domestication strategy promote minimal effort for target readers to understand foreign culture, foreignisation strategies had to be employed for terms involving some traditions and architectural features. Likewise, constraints such as wordiness and weakened cultural aspect were challenges faced during translation. Hence, supplementary notes were incorporated in this project to aid in the understanding of the text. These findings also helped to address research questions including what strategies could be employed to effectively communicate the foreign culture to its target readers and alternative methods to deal with culture loss during the translation process. This project is also a useful reference for related fields.