A Tentative Study on the Translation of the Characters’ Names in Moment in Peking.doc

a tentative study on the translation of the characters names in moment in peking acknowledgements i am deeply indebted to guo yi, my supervisor, who has read my drafts meticulously and offered incisive comments on them. without his help, the thesis could never have reached its present from. my sincere gratitude also gose to all my teachers who have given me excellent advices and great help, which is indispensable to the completion of this thesis. i also give my hearty thanks to all my roommates and friends who offered me generous help and useful suggestions in the process of writing this thesis. finally, i would like to express my appreciation to all the writers whose works are referred to in this thesis.摘 要本文旨在通过分析京华烟云中人名的翻译指出目前我国人名翻译所遵循的三大原则。此外，论文还指出其不足和需要改进之处。针对我国现阶段人名翻译混乱，同一人名出现多种翻译法的情况，参考国内外学者对当代人名翻译的研究，提出当代人名翻译所需遵守的最适合的人名翻译原则，运用现代拼音系统，统一规范华人姓名外译，既要遵循人名翻译的原则，又要弘扬中华民族传统。关键词：人名翻译；原则；现代拼音系统；京华烟云abstractthe thesis is aimed at pointing out the rules of name translation through analysis of li yutangs moment in peking . but it is not just an analysis of the rules of name translation, it also points out the deficiencies and the factors that need to improve. to improve the present chaotic conditions of the name translation, such as translating the same name in many different ways, the most proper rule for the chinese name translation will be proposed on the basis of previous research conducted both at home and abroad. that is modern pinyin system, standardizing and unifying the chinese name translation, which should both follow the basic rules of name translation and the traditional habit of chinese culture. key words: name translation, rules, modern pinyin system, moment in peking contents0. introduction.1. literature review2. previous studies of english translation of chinese names.2.1 principles of english translation of chinese names.2.1.1 wade system.2.1.2 literal translation2.1.3 modern pinyin system2.2 the sequence of the family name and given name3. the cultural background of the author and moment in peking.4. the name in the book moment in peking and the rules they represent.4.1the chinese-english cross reference of the names in moment in peking4.2 the classification of the name according to the rules they follow.4.2.1 according to the wade system4.2.2 according to literal translation4.2.3 in line with modern pinyin system.4.2.4 other translation ways.5. findings and discussion.5.1 discussion5.1 about wade system5.2 about literal translation.5.3 about other translation ways.5.4 about the sequence5.5 suggestions.6. conclusionworks cited.appendixes140. introductionas the opening of our country deepens, the communication with the outside world becomes more and more frequent. but the english translation of chinese names is still in chaos, which causes lots of inconvenience. it is necessary to give some rules to regulate the english translation of chinese names. studies have been done in this area, however, one chinese name may still be translated into various english names and there is not a normative principle for the english translation of the chinese names, so this thesis is aimed at illustrating the ways of name translation in moment in peking, combining with the three practical principle, wade-giles system, literal translation and modern pinyin system, as well as presenting the existing problems and the advice which can be given. this thesis follows a clear train of thought, which is presenting the name translation principles first, and analysing the names in the book next, with the findings and conclusion at last. moment in peking is one of the representative works of lin yutang, a famous writer, linguist and translator. the book was written in english by a chinese person, which can show the process of translation from chinese to english well. moment in peking contains all that three kinds of ways in its names translation, which can reflect the aim of the thesis and make it the most appropriate book for this thesis. the translation of names in this book was chosen as the major focus of the research, aiming to provide a mode of name translation and a reference for the translator.1. literature review recently, as our communication with the outside world become more and more closely, the translation of name from chinese to english happens in many occasions. however, there are still disorders exist in the translation of the chinese name. the same chinese name may be translated in various ways. “even among international academic communication and the exchange of intelligents, the order of the family name and given name, the resolution of the double family name are in disorder. for example, someone use wade system, someone use pinyin, someone translate the name according to chinese custom, putting the family name at the beginning and the given name at last; someone according to the western culture, in the opposite way, and so on. the chaotic conditions of the translation of chinese names bring about a lot difficulties in understanding and communication. so the standardization of the translation of names is imperative. a lot of studies have been done in this decade, for example, huang yixin (2003) illustrated fourteen kinds of nonstandard name translations, and pointed out the problems in english translation of chinese names (chin j epidemiol, july 2003.); luo xue (2001) from the perspective of introducing the national criteria on normal english translation of chinese names, analysing the disorders of the name translation, put forward some suggestions on it, which affirm the feasibility and scientific nature of the modern pinyin system (中国人名的英译规范问题，intelligence, 2001). lu jinhua, in his thesis the currect translation of chinese name in english, based on investigations, pointed out many academic periodicals that don not conform to the norms in translating chinese names into english at present, and introduced the relevant domestic norms and international norms. by citing examples, eight types of errors was analysed in translating the chinese names, and presented views on the causes of the translating errors and the ways to redress them. based those studies, this thesis will make another deepgoing discussion on chinese name translation.2. theoretical study of english translation of chinese names in theoretical study of english translation of chinese name, three principles will be presented and specific analysis will be done. the advantages and disadvantages of these principles will be specifically discussed. also, the theoretical study of the sequence of the family name and given name will be presented.2.1 principlesin the following part, principles of the english translation of chinese names and their shortcomings are presented. currently, there are mainly three rules in common use, the wade-giles system, literal translation, and the modern pinyin system, each having their own advantages and disadvantages.2.1.1 according to the wade-giles systemfirstly, wade-giles, sometimes abbreviated wade, is a romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration) system for the chinese language based on the form of mandarin used in beijing. it developed from a system produced by thomas wade in the mid-19th century, and reached settled form with herbert giless chinese-english dictionary of 1912. it was the main system of transliteration in the english-speaking world for most of the 20th century, replacing the nanjing-based romanization systems that had been common until late in the 19th century. the wade-giles system, which was once as a tool for the foreign envoys to learn chinese, widespread with the spread of english and become the main spelling way of translating the native chinese names, native places, in terms of its continence for the foreigners to pronounce. the translators of the 1950s such as mr yang xianyi and his wife. when they translated the names in a dream of red mansion, they used this system a lot in their translation, such as chia hua贾化，chen fei甄费 in a dream of red mansion of translated by them. however, the wade-giles system is still not perfect in linguistic techniques. for instance, according to the system, the letters z, c in pinyin become ts, ts and tz, tz respectively. the letter s becomes s, ss, and sz. in this way, the different letters in english adopt the same denotation, and use many signs to distinguish them. but when they were printed, this signs were always been omitted, which will surely cause perplexity. 2.1.2 according to literal translationsecondly, literal translation rule, which translate the chinese name into english words that can represent their meaning, can help native english spoken people understand the meaning of the chinese names. the famous translator of the songs of chu written by du fu and a dream of red mansion, david hawkes, he is a good master of literal translation. in the translation of the names of the characters in a dream of red mansion, literal translation was used apropriate by him to translate the ancient chinese names, such as darling香怜，precious玉爱. he belived that this way can convey the exact meaning of ancient chinese names. however, if it was used to translate all the chinese names, the culture deposits can be ruined and jokes may be made by the translator, such as translate 黛玉 to black jade, which may be understood as an black dissolute woman. 2.1.3 in line with modern pinyin systemthirdly, the modern pinyin system, which is easiest to accept and understand, which is the way that can not be accept by the young people easily, is now used by most countries and international organizations in the translation of chinese names. many studies have been done by the contemporary scholars to support it. bian yanyao, in 2002, put forward three suggestions on english translation of chinese names, and the main idea is to choose modern pinyin system as the only standard way to translate chinese names, because of its wide use in international communication in modern times. the modern pinyin system is widely used in the government documents，and do not cause bad influences. there is no need to submit to the western habit， except the name of ethnic groups, hong kong and macao citizens of chinese origin and overseas chinese. whats more, since we use this system, there are no adverse reactions from overseas readers and domestic readers. 2.2 the sequence of the family name and given name as to the sequence of the family name and given name, some prefer complying with the habit of western countries, putting the given name in front of the family name. while some choose to follow the chinese custom, putting them in the opposite order, such as lin yutang, who insisted on doing according to the habit of chinese names, which is know as “to follow the practice of the name-bearer”.3. the cultural background of the author and the book moment in peking moment in peking is an original novel written in english by lin yutang, a famous writer, linguist and translator when he was in america. though he was a chinese, he grew up in a christian family, who accepted western education since childhood. so he had a good command of english, which allowed him to write his first novel in english. he was a language genius, who resolved to remedy his knowledge in chinese culture by diligent work. however, chinese was his mother tongue after all. the book described five different families belonging to different social classes, which were all typical traditional chinese families. so the process that he wrote this book is a process of translation from chinese to english. the translation of the characters names was a difficult part because the translation should be easy to understand and at the same time catch the chinese culture behind the names. at that time, china was experiencing the revolution of 1911 and warlord faction. this book was written in the nationalism and communism rising abruptly as well as the starting of anti-japanese war when the country was in unrest; wade-giles system was widely used in translating the chinese names into english. 4. the names in the book moment in peking and the principles they represent in the following part, specific classification of the names in moment in peking will be presented according to the rules they follow. all those three principles are used in that book, which the principles will be showed in a clear and specific way.4.1according to the wade systemfor example, feng tse-an 冯子安, was pronounced z as ts; kung huan-erh孔环儿, had been changed “ong” to “ung” and adding an “h” to ajust the habit of english pronunciation; yao tijen姚体仁, used “j” to replace “r” to make the native speaker pronounce more convinient; yao mochow姚莫愁, also used different letters collocation “ow” to replace letters collocation “ou”; tung paofen童宝芬, similarly, “ung” for “ong” , and “p” for “b”, poya博雅, which is another eaxmple , used “p” to replace “b” ; tseng pingya曾平亚 and tseng chinya曾襟亚, here the family name “zeng” was changed to “tseng”.4.2 according to literal translationfor example, silverscreen银屏, little joy小喜儿, brocade锦儿, cassia桂姐, cold fragrance冷香, snow blossom雪花, bluehaze青霞, muskrose香薇, feng redjade冯红玉, hsieh coral谢珊瑚, shu dimfragrance舒暗香, phoenix凤凰, frankinsence乳香, from which we can find a common ground of the translation of these chinese names, these chinese names are easy to find an corresponding word in english. the aim of the author choosing literal translation is to help the native speaker understand the meanings of these chinese names, which are very polite language and hard to grasp their meaning by mere transliteration. 4.3 in line with modern pinyin systemfor example, chenma陈妈aman阿满, yao mulan姚木兰, yao afei姚阿非, these are completely consistent with the modern pinyin system, which is the most popular way to translate chinese names into english in modern world. 4.4 other translation waysfor example, new szetao牛似道, new huaiyu牛怀瑜, new tungyu牛东瑜, new suyun牛素云, new taiyun牛黛云, the translation of the family name 牛niu was replaced with the homophonic word in english “new”. others, such as old chin老金, mrs. hua华太太, was the most common usage of name translation, which are the most common usage to call their men.5. findings and discussionin the following part, discussion will be made, and the findings will be summarized after specific discussion. from analysing the disadvantages of wade-giles system and literal translation, and the advantages of modern pinyin system, this thesis will get the conclusion that the modern pinyin system will be the most appropriate way for english translation of chinese names.5.1 about wade-giles systemas to the first way, to translate the chinese names according to the wade system, it is very popular in the authors time. the aim of this system is to make it convenient for foreign envoys to learn chinese, so it tried to keep to the rules and habits that fit the western world. though it tried to retain the pronunciation of the chinese names, it failed to keep all the original pronunciation. this way is good for the foreigners. from the point to translate, this way is very useful. but it is hard for native chinese people to understand the word. the wade-giles system came into being during the age of colonialism, which has a strong feudal colonial colour. so it can not reflect the real implication of chinese names, and is not in line with the national independence and the reality of the contemporary china. what is more, to use wade-giles system may cause misunderstandings both with chinese people and foreigners. firstly, one letter of wade-giles system may represent different pronounciations, for example, ch zh, ch ch, ch j, ch q. secondly, one chinese letter may have different spellings, for example, 卜/薄-po/pu, 蔡/柴-tsia/choi/tsai, 陈-chen/chan/tan. in order to catch up with the pace of the modern society, to make china be understand more accurately, new unified regulations for the translation of chinese name must take its place. 5.2 about literal translationas to the literal translation of the chinese names, which has been proved not the proper way for all the english translation of chinese names. it can be the best way to let the readers understand the meaning of the chinese names, but it has limit. if the translator does not deal with it properly, it will become neither fish nor fowl. for example, silverscreen银屏, little joy小喜儿, brocade锦儿, cassia桂姐, cold fragrance冷香, snow blossom雪花, bluehaze青霞, muskrose香薇, feng redjade冯红玉, hsieh coral谢珊瑚, shu dimfragrance舒暗香, phoenix凤凰, frankinsence乳香, all these names, whose appearance of these name is less likely to happen. this way also violates the principle of brevity. dimfragrance, frankinsence, are too much longer for their chinese names, 暗香, 乳香. so literal translation is also not the proper way to translate the chinese names. 5.3 the modern pinyin system as to the modern pinyin system, which is easiest to accept and understand, is now used by most countries and international organizations in the translation of chinese names. to apply the modern pinyin sy