留学生论文网

Chapter1 Introduction

 In the early 1990s, China's researchers began to study advertising translation. They were focused on the study of translation strategies, also the problems and difficulties that were existed in Chinese-English translation. The study of this field was still in the "initial stage". Until now, there were deeper study of advertising language translation, the content of research is concentrated on the principles and standards used in the translation process. But the research still remains in the period of theory study. We can find many mistakes in the daily translated advertisements.
Nowadays, there are more and more attention is being paid to the cultural difference involved in advertising translation. In china, the translation quality is still in a low level. In the future, with the supporting of government, more scholars will be engaged in the translation industry. Business company will also support the study in order to get a correct overseas promoting advertising slogan. The research findings would be applied in the daily business and put into practice. The translation quality must be improved.
As one of the largest potential markets and fast growing economic communities in the world, China is attracting enormous foreign investment and importing and exporting trades every year. China is becoming the world manufacturing center, and consequently Chinese advertising will inevitably experience an explosive growth in the foreseeable future. However, the translation of advertising was almost completely overlooked by translation studies for many years. It was only recently that the importance of advertising translation began to be recognized.
Since advertising language is a special practical writing, quite different from common literary works, it has important marketing functions besides its linguistic function. Advertising translation is not only a linguistic and cultural activities, but also an important commercial activity. Thus the question of what is the standard of a good advertising translation and how to translate advertisement aroused the interest of both advertising agencies and linguists.
 The thesis aims at giving an insight into these questions and the author hopes to contribute to the improvement of the translation of advertising. Though there are a lot of researches done on the field of advertising translation, few scholars have conducted systematic researches in this field. The thesis will help to analyze the cause of the inadequate translation of advertising, and provide a series of corresponding strategies.

Chapter 2 Literature Review

This part is the theory framework in the paper. It will introduce the commercial advertising and translation especially the studies related to the topic at home and abroad.
2.1Commercial Advertising and Translation
2.1.1Definition of Commercial Advertising
  In modern society, advertising is so familiar for people that it may seem odd to ask what advertising is. There are a variety of definitions of advertising according to different perspectives or purposes. The word “advertise” originates from the Latin word “advertere”, referring to “to inform somebody of something” and "to draw attention to something”. Encyclopedia Britannia defines advertising as “the techniques used to bring products, services opinion or cause to public notice for the propose of persuading the public to respond in a certain way towards what is advertised”. According to American Marketing Association, “advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in return about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media”. rom the above definitions, we can figure out the basic components of advertising: advertising is mainly paid for by sponsors; advertising reaches us by various kinds of media; advertising aims at groups of people rather than individuals. The role of advertising in society is to inform, influence, persuade and change opinions or even change attitudes and emotions. Most advertising aims to persuade the customers to buy products or services, though some advertisements do this indirectly. Thus, the content of advertising is the information about goods or services.
 
2.1.2Features of Commercial Advertising
As a special field of translation, commercial advertisement translation is different from other forms of translation, especially the long-held tradition of literary translation, already enjoy a long history, the theory and practice greatly different. In literary translation，methods and strategies adopted by may have a certain guiding significance in advertising translation, but there are still some problems to be solved. As a relatively new field, in commercial advertising, the advertisers want to reach consumers, through sales of products. At present, all kinds of commercial advertising all around us by newspapers, magazines and radio/TV programs in daily life. The common features and functions of commercial advertising can be summarized as AIDA, that is, attention, interest, desire and action.
Attention. In order to effectively influence consumers’ response, commercial advertising should first get the attention of consumers. Slogan, therefore, should be bold, attractive and fun, sometimes can bring fresh ideas.
 As a kind of mass communication, advertising should be attractive enough for consumers to remember and acknowledge the advertisement in another place, after they have seen the advertisement. To gain attention, the slogan must be unique, putting forward a major selling point to grasp the consumer's memory.
 Interest. Advertising must grasp interests of consumers, as long as you can persuade them to believe advertising transmission capacity. A persuasive advertisement should, therefore, according to consumers’ tastes, provide useful information, in order to meet the needs of consumers.
Desire. We should get the potential consumers’ attention, and keep their interests. This is usually through the provision of relevant information, in order to meet the needs and create positive feelings to do advertising and brand/product, and then make consumers understood to arouse their purchasing desire.
Action. Finally, the advertisements provide enough to encourage consumers to take action to buy products immediately or lead to future purchases.
2.2Cross Culture and differences
2.2.1Definition of Cross Culture
Cross culture refers to a culture which crosses the boundaries between countries and nations, also means interaction among groups with two or more cultural backgrounds此处加入脚注. Cross-culture awareness is adequate and correct recognition of cultural phenomenon, custom and habit that are different from or conflict against national culture, acceptance and adaption to it on this basis in an open manner. From the academic view, and the perspective of culture theory, cultural identity means certain group’s sense of belonging and acceptance with certain culture. It has certain directive property in cultural value. In short, “cross culture” refers to interactive relationship among all people who cross system boundaries and experience cultural properties. In particular, it is a social phenomenon resulted from the increase of social mobility and racial integration in globalization.
During cross cultural activities, one should regard other culture as equal subject. There is equal conversation between them. However, this understanding does not insist on absolute identity between the subject and the object, but admits and accepts difference too. People may have different understandings in this aspect, just like how novels and books are understood. Understanding of cross culture is learning different cultures and understandings between different cultures. It is not only to discuss difference, but similarities need to be studied too. It is the coexistence of similarities and differences that makes understanding of different cultures possible. Uniformity of culture differences and similarities is the answer to understand cross culture.
 
2.2.2Cross-cultural Differences
When two groups from different cultures are interacting together, they are in a situation of cross-cultural communication. An ancient Afghan proverb states: “What you see in yourself is what you see in the world” . So, without training in culture differences, people will judge all behavior “wrong” and act in a different way. A cultural understanding will enrich our business and life . This part presents the existing model of culture created by researchers. Thanks to their model and analysis, French and Chinese cultural standard can be defined and compared. There are many leading studies on cross-cultural differences which have been realized. Fons Trompenaars, Edward Hall and Geert Hofstede are some famous researchers of this topic. All of them created a set of cultural dimensions which allow comparing and analyzing the culture tendency of countries in the world. These cultural dimensions are based on the country’s values and can directly predict human acting, emotion, opinion and behavior of organizations and institutions.
 
The rapid development of economic globalization has promoted the exchange of goods around the world. Additionally, more attention should be paid to the differences in cultural factors between the SL and TL, including value orientation, thinking mode and language aesthetics, which will be discussed in Chapter 3.

Chapter 3 Influences of Cross-cultural Differences on Commercial Advertising Translation

Advertising does not only influence the human society in which it is widespread, but also reflects certain aspects of that society’s values and structure. This chapter introduces influences from the perspective of values, aesthetic standards and thinking patterns.
3.1Values
Value orientation is different among nationalities, countries or regions. Whether the consumers accept the advertising directly depends on value orientation, which thus affects consumers’ behaviors.
Hofstedeproposed that society is divided into two types--individualism society and collectivism society. In the individualism society, the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after herself or himself and their own families. On the contrary, in society of collectivism, people are integrated into a cohesive group throughout people’s lifetime, continuing to protect them in exchanging for unquestioning loyalty. China is a typical representative of collectivism society, owning an intensive culture, also called group culture. For thousands of years, China, under the influence of traditional Confucian culture, has formed a style of strong nation emphasizing similarities and collective sense. So in advertising, such words, like “ 人人都用 ”, “ 大家都说好 ” often appear. On the contrary, most western countries belong to individualism societies owing loose culture, where people usually pay more attention to individual, attach importance to personal values, and pursue novelty and innovation. “Individuality”, “personality” and “independence” are often used by advertisers as the appeal or theme, and sometimes, advertisers even convince consumers in a very tone specific to one individual.
Example 1
老西来顺饭店为宾客提供四季菜肴、精制烤涮、甜食面点，大宴小酌。 竭诚欢迎各界朋友光临品鉴。
Version1: Laoxilaishun Restaurant provides all guests with dishes for all seasons, including roast food, hot-pot as well traditional light refreshments. And the guest can hold banquets, entertain friends, or have informal dinners here. Welcome all guests to Laoxilaishun Restaurant.
Version 2:Laoxilaishun Restaurant is an ideal place for you to hold banquets, entertain friends, or have informal dinners. It enjoys great reputation for its good service and well prepared dishes for all seasons, including roast food, hot-pot as well traditional light refreshments. Customers old and new are sincerely welcome to Laoxilaishun Restaurant and we are sure you can enjoy yourself.
Version 1 is the the writer’s personal translation neglecting different value orientation between Chinese and English-speaking customers, while in the official version (version 2), the words “we” and “you” are used to meet the requirement of westerners’ value orientation of individualism. And by taking this value orientation into consideration, the advertising translators can effectively make customers and advertised restaurant closer, which promotes the realization of purpose of the advertising translation.
Example 2
 “ 接天下客，送万里情 ”( 天津出租汽车公司 )
Version 1: Ready to meet guests from all over the world.
Version 2: Ready to meet you from all over the world.
The translation is “Ready to meet you from all over the world” rather than the writer’s personal translation, “ready to meet guests from all over the world”. “ 天下客 ” is translated as “you from all over the world”, which caters to westerners’ value orientation of pursuing individualism and personality.
 
 
Example 3
让 WIC 妇孺计划帮助您 .
Version 1: Let WIC help you．
Version 2: Let WIC work for you．
Both versions fully express the meaning of the advertising, but since western consumers advocate independence, the phrase “帮助” is translated into “work for”, which is better than “help”. Such substitution makes the foreign consumers feel that the translator respects their autonomy and thus participating in this independent activities．
Example 4
Begin your own tradition
Version 1: 开始你自己的传统吧 !
Version 2: 代代相传，由你开始 !
The writer translates the advertising as “ 开 始你 自己 的传 统 吧 !”, which is loyal to the original advertising, but it violates the collective value orientation of Chinese readers, failing to resonate the hearts of customers. The translation “ 代代相传，由你开始 ” satisfies Chinese customers’ value orientation of collectivism, which promotes the realization of advertising purpose. Thanks to different value orientation, a lot of Chinese advertisements are difficult to be accepted by the western consumers. Some Chinese advertisements are used to conveying some strong consciousness of homeland, such as “ 海尔，中国造 ”, “ 非常可乐，中国人自己的可乐 ” etc..
These advertisements with “home or country” as the core of publicity are not easy to be accepted by Western consumers advocating individualism. And such a strong sense of national pride may be mistaken as nationalism by western people. Therefore, when Haier Group, used the version “Haier: made in China” as its core of advertisement in 1997 to shape its brand around the world, they took little effect. Therefore, Haier Group changed its advertisement as “ 海尔：真诚到 永远 ” -- “Haier: To Be Tue Forever”.
Therefore, attentions should be paid to the function of the version, and when translators process advertising, value orientation is one of the key points determining the realization of the advertising purpose. Value orientation in advertising translation determines whether the version enjoys good advertising effect or not.
 
3.2 Aesthetic Standards
Influenced by the historical tradition, geographical environment, folk custom and economic development, each nation has its own aesthetic tastes. One thing that is respected in a culture may not resonate in another culture. As an English proverb says, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison” . Therefore, the measurement, appreciation and perception toward beauty are pretty different for different nations. Take an example: the modern Chinese people regard slim figure, blonde complexion, healthy and lively character as beauty while the westerners are in pursuit of natural beauty such as robust build and bronze complexion. In addition, different aesthetic standards will cause diverse associations for the same thing in the minds of people in China and the West. For instance, “dragon” is considered as the spiritual totem of the Han nationality in China, symbolizing good fortune and power. And the feudal emperors in ancient China often compared themselves to the “dragon”. At the same time, the Chinese people are proud of being as descendants of the dragon. Nevertheless, in the eyes of the westerners, “dragon” is an incarnation of evil. The devil Satan who is mentioned for many times in the book Bible is called “the old dragon” . Again, Magpie is regarded as an auspicious bird in Chinese culture while it is metaphorically referred to the people who keeps chattering and annoying others. Thus, when the Chinese brand “喜鹊” ,which is beloved and quite popular among the Chinese people, is translated into English, it cannot be translated as “Magpie”.
The differences in the aesthetic concepts between the Chinese and western people are closely related to the commercial advertising translation. Commercial advertisement is a kind of text integrated with the purpose and artistry. A good commercial advertisement not only can arouse the purchase desire of consumers, but also can activate their associations and imagination so that they can obtain the mind joyfulness and beauty appreciation. Enlightened from Reception Aesthetics, in the process of commercial advertising translation, the translator should regard the target readers as the subjects, fully mobilizing their aesthetic experience, activating the aesthetic information of advertising and fusing the aesthetic experience of the original and target readers. Just like this, the translation can be vivid so as to move the hearts of consumers. For instance, in the specifications of many domestic skin-care products, the words of “增白” is translated as “ whiten the skin”. In Chinese culture, “增白” are words with commendatory meaning which reflects the aesthetic taste of Chinese people. But the rich in the western countries pursue the healthy beauty of bronze complexion. In their eyes, paleness stands for poverty and illness, not a symbol of beauty. Influenced by such a kind of aesthetic taste, who is willing to spend money to buy this kind of products in the West? Some translated versions like this seem to be completely equivalent to the original ones. But contrary to the aesthetic tastes, the kind of translated versions cannot win the consumers.
Example 1
Poison (a perfume brand of Christian Dior)
Poison (百爱神) is a kind of women perfume produced by the famous French cosmetics brand Christian Dior Co., which was translated as “毒药” when first introduced to the Chinese market. Because this perfume has five colors for consumers to select as purple, green, red, white and blue. According to the colors, they are also called as “紫毒”, “绿毒”, “红毒”, “白毒” and “蓝毒” which embodies the Western women’s characteristics of freedom and vigor, and pursuit of a wild, exciting and rough style. The Poison perfume shapes a hot and sexy, mysterious and gorgeous lady full of temptations and charming atmosphere. Every man would have a crush on her once seeing her at the first sight. Therefore, this perfume is quite popular among the western women. However, the Chinese women, always gentle, dignified virtuous, are difficult to accept this kind of image which this perfume shaped. Then translator has taken the Chinese women’s aesthetic tastes into consideration and has transliterated it as “百爱神”, which has got a good market feedback.
Example 2
Avon (American female cosmetics brand)
Avon (雅芳) is a female cosmetics brand of an American company and is named after the River Avon in Shakespeare’s hometown. Obviously, this English brand wants to take the big writer’s reputation to achieve two goals: one is to enhance the popularity of this product; another is to show its elegant quality. There is nothing wrong with English speaking countries, such as Britain and the United States. However, majorities of Chinese people are familiar with Shakespeare, while quite few people can associate Avon with him. Naturally, the name “Avon” cannot give the Chinese consumers any elegant association. When it translating into Chinese, the aesthetic tastes of Chinese women have been well considered. The Chinese translated version “雅芳” has meet the Chinese women’s aesthetic tastes and expectations of the quality of this cosmetics in selection of words, although the cultural connotation of the trademark is lost in the translated version.
In short, due to the huge differences existing in language habits, consumers’ psychology and aesthetic tastes between the Chinese and Western consumers, in the process of commercial advertising translation, the translators are required to center with the target readers, get a high fusion of horizons of expectations between the translated version and the target readers by selecting the target readers’ beloved language forms, considering their consumption psychology and aesthetic tastes. Flexible application of various translation strategies and methods should be adopted according to different situations in order to insure that the target readers can have the same feelings from the translated texts as the original readers have from the original texts (Ouyang, 2003, p.178), attracting their interest to promote their actions. 

。。。。。。
。。。。。。
。。。。。。