The Image of China as a Destination for Tourist: Translation Strategies of Culture-Specific Items in the Chinese-English Food Menus

Abstract

This study investigated how culture-specific items in Chinese-English food menus were translated. The Chinese menu corpus was examined using a descriptive case study method for qualitative analysis and a corpus-based method for relevant data extraction and quantitative analysis. The study aimed to identify the categories of culture-specific items (CSIs) in the corpus and also examine whether, and if so, how CSI categories condition the choice of translation procedures and its influence exerted at the macro macro-level on the image of China, projected as a tourist destination. The results indicated that CSIs categories existent in the corpus include the linguistics, historical, and social categories. These categories were also a conditioning factor modulating the selection and use of a particular translation procedure. The linguistic CSI category influenced the employment of description procedures; retention was largely used for the social category, whereas retention and description procedures were utilized for the historical category. Employing Lawrence Venuti’s domestication and foreignization strategies and the neutralization strategy of some scholars (e.g. Josep Marco) as a conceptual framework, the results also revealed a strong preference for the use of neutralization strategy in translating CSIs where the strangeness of the source text is demystified, their connotative meanings explicitly rendered, thereby projecting China as a friendly, welcoming, and accommodating destination for tourists. The quantitative methodology employed to analyze the translation of CSIs in the menu text is a crucial contribution that counterbalances the predominant qualitative methods employed in the field.