A Probe into the Translation of Porcelain Commentary Text

of Museum from the Perspective of Reception Aesthetics

--Based on the Porcelains of Nanjing Municipal Museum

By Sun Mingyue

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement

For the B.A. Degree

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

June, 2017

A Probe into the Translation of Porcelain Commentary Text of Museum from the

Perspective of Reception Aesthetics

--Based on the Porcelains of Nanjing Municipal Museum

Sun Mingyue

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: The porcelain in the museum is an important platform for cultural display and cultural transmission, and the translation of the porcelain’s commentary text provides an intuitive reference for the external display and dissemination of porcelain culture. Therefore, the translation research of the porcelain’s commentary text is of great significance. In this paper, the commentary texts for porcelain in the Nanjing Municipal Museum are investigated. Under the guidance of Reception Aesthetics and with methods of analysis by examples, this paper attempts to summarize the translation difficulties through the analysis of translation in every part of the commentary text. Then, three strategies of translation are concluded and proposed from the aspects of the porcelains’ features and culture according to the translation difficulties. By analyzing the translation of the porcelain commentary text, this paper find out that Reception Aesthetics is applicable and useful in guiding porcelain commentary text translation, and it is expected to be helpful for following porcelain commentary text translation studies.

Key words: porcelains in museum, commentary text, Reception Aesthetics, examples analysis

摘要:博物馆瓷器是文化展示的文化传播的重要平台，其解说文本的翻译为瓷器文化的对外展示和传播提供了直观的参考资源。因此，瓷器解说文本的翻译研究尤为重要。本文以南京市博物馆的瓷器解说文本为研究对象，在接受美学的理论指导下，以举例分析为研究方法，通过对解说文本各个部分的翻译的分析总结出瓷器解说文本的翻译难点所在，之后根据翻译难点从瓷器特点和文化方面总结提出了三种翻译策略。通过对瓷器解说文本翻译的分析，本文证明了接受美学对瓷器解说文本的翻译具有可行性和指导性，并且希望能为今后的相关的瓷器解说文本翻译起到指导作用。

关键词:博物馆瓷器；解说文本；接受美学；举例分析

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Purpose and Innovation of this Paper 1

1.2 Research Method of this Paper 2

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Abroad Research on the Translation of Porcelain Commentary Text 2

2.2 Domestic Research on the Translation of Porcelain Commentary Text 3

3. Classifications of the Translation in the Porcelain Commentary Text 4

3.1 Translation of Porcelain’s Name 4

3.1.1 The Proper Name Order 5

3.1.2 Semantic Change 5

3.1.3 Lexical Gap 6

3.2 Translation of Glaze 6

3.3 Translation of Shape 7

3.4 Translation of Ornamentation 8

3.4.1 People Story 8

3.4.2 Landscape, Flower and Bird 9

3.4.3 Auspicious Pattern 9

3.5 Translation of Origin and Age 10

4. Translation Difficulties of Porcelain Commentary Text 10

4.1 Various Features of Porcelain, Abundant Proper Noun 10

4.2 Rich Cultural Information 11

4.3 Gorgeous Text Rhetoric, Neat Antithesis 12

5. Translation Strategies of the Porcelain Commentary Text 12

5.1 Features and Key Point 13

5.2 Culture Identity 13

5.3 Audience Interest and Information Structure 15

6. Conclusion 16

References 17

Acknowledgements 18

1. Introduction

The ancient Chinese porcelain is not only the treasures of the Chinese art, but also a bright pearl in the history of the world's art. In the process of opening the exhibition to the outside world at the museum, the quantity of the foreign visitors is increasing. Therefore, the porcelain commentary text is a bridge which is connecting foreign tourist and porcelain’s culture. This paper is going to analyze the translation of porcelain commentary text by listing some examples from Nanjing Municipal Museum, and explore the connection between Reception Aesthetics and the translation of the porcelain commentary text. Then, it will try to summarize the difficulties in the translation of porcelain commentary text. In the end, three strategies of translation are supposed to be proposed.

1.1 Purpose and Innovation of this Paper

The commentary text of porcelain is an important means of the transmission of culture information, and it provides with intuitive reference resources for the external display and dissemination of the porcelain culture. The commentary text of the porcelain in the museum has strong information, many proper nouns, gorgeous rhetoric, neat antithesis, and coupled with the huge differences between Chinese and Western culture, so the translation of the commentary text is subject to the time and space constraints. The core of the theory of "accepting aesthetics" is to proceed from the audience, the point of acceptance and the perspective of the reader. It emphasizes that the translation should pay attention to the "overall impact of the information on the recipient." Therefore, the purpose of this paper is demonstrating that the Reception Aesthetics is applicable and useful in guiding the porcelain commentary text translation by focusing on the translations of the porcelains’ commentary texts in Nanjing Municipal Museum, and analyzing the characteristics of translation of the porcelain’s composition elements, including the ornamentation, glaze, shape, age and origin. In the end, this paper put forward specific strategies of translation after the analysis of the examples. The significance and innovation of the paper is comprehensively analyzing the translation of the porcelain commentary text, and summarizing some specific strategies of translation, which demonstrate the importance of Reception Aesthetics in guiding the translation of commentary text. This paper makes up the blank of Nanjing Municipal Museum in the research of related topics, and it is helpful for the following studies related to the translation of the porcelain commentary text.

1.2 Research Method of this Paper

In this paper, the commentary texts of porcelain in the Nanjing Municipal Museum are investigated. According to the purpose of the paper, I choose the case analyzing method to explore the exact strategies of translation for the porcelain commentary text. Therefore, a number of examples will be listed in the following text, especially in part three, four and five. In part two, some abroad and domestic researches which are related to this paper are listed in order to make this thesis more convincing. Porcelains contain many compositions, which are different among dynasties. So some porcelain which is from different dynasties will be explored. Porcelains have unique characteristics. Some are famous for the ornamentation, others are known for the glaze. Thus, I will pick up the special examples to analyze the translation of the commentary text in detail, and then try to summarize the difficulties of the translation. In part five, three strategies of translation will be put forward.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Abroad Research on the Translation of Porcelain Commentary Text

The concept of Reception Aesthetics was firstly proposed by Yao Si, the professor of literature and art from the University of Konstanz, in 1960s. Then, this concept developed into an impactful School of Reception Aesthetics. In the 1960s, the American scholar Eugene Nida proposed the reader's theory of reaction, and he advocated that the study object of translation is the reader or language receiver, and he stressed that the translation should pay attention to "The overall impact of the information on the recipient." (Eugene, 1969: 12) In the late 1970s, Reception Aesthetics was applied in the field of translation study in the West. Since 1975, after George Steiner had described the hermeneutic translation pattern in detail, Reception Aesthetics became an important aspect of the present translation studies. So Reception Aesthetics could provide this paper with a defined theoretical guidance.

Then, more and more scholars tend to introduce the culture of Chinese porcelain. For instance, the book “Chinese pottery and porcelain,” written by Vainker, S.J, offers a concise and generally well-presented account of the world's most accomplished ceramic tradition. (Shelagh Vainker, 1991:82) It inspires me that studying the translation of porcelain commentary text will contribute to the spread of Chinese culture.

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