The Chinese –English Cultural Differences and Impacts of Advertising Translation

龙源期刊网 https://www.360docs.net/doc/7d18469178.html,

作者：苗贵娜

来源：《科学与财富》2013年第02期

摘要：Advertisement is not only an economic activity, but also a kind of cultural exchange. Advertisement, being a manifestation of language in action, is a widely used medium of communication in modern society. The translation of advertisement must be accurate and fluent. Accuracy in the translation of advertisement lies in pragmatic meaning. The translation of advertising English is obviously different from other styles. The translator should possess the knowledge in language, social culture, folk-custom, aesthetics, psychics, marketing economics and advertising theory and so on. Using advertising language brings various difficulties resulting from the differences in cultures and languages among countries. This paper argues that the cultural differences between Chinese and English and its impacts ,also its focuses on the theory of adaptation to do the translation well.

关键词：advertising English; cultural differences; advertisement translation;theory of adaptation 1．Introduction of Culture and Culture Differences

Owning to the different geography and history, people in Western countries and China have different cultural values and mode of thinking. It is also another issue which should be considered as an important factor in advertising translation.

Comparing Chinese with Western people, personal honor, self-centre, pioneering spirit and individual freedom are emphasized in the Western culture; modesty, sacrifice, the golden mean and harmonious cooperation are the main features in Chinese culture. Western people think much of classes and have complex family relations. In the Chinese-English advertising translation, misunderstanding is always found and influences in the sales of the products in the foreign market.

Advertising is created by human beings. As a cultural media pattern, advertising is affected by the different mode of thinking of the creators of the advertisements. Advertising is connected closely with people’s mode of thinking. In Chinese advertisement, the important meaning is always expressed in the end. It is because Chinese people are implicit and the tendency to think is in spiral way, which influences the speaking pattern of Chinese people. Meanwhile, fewer words are used in English advertisements in which the main idea is put at the beginning which accords to the straightforward character of Western people. The different declarative patterns between Chinese and Western advertisements are decided by the different Chinese and English mode of thinking.

2． Three aspects of cultural differences in advertising translation