The Applications of Domestication and Foreignization in the Translation of English and Chinese Movie Titles

Abstract

Taking domestication and foreignization as the research object, this paper is meant to explore the applications of domestication and foreignization in English and Chinese film titles. Firstly, it probes into the main factors that have influence on the translation of film titles, namely ways of thinking, aesthetic concepts, business values and translators’ understandings of the cultural background of the source language. Secondly, by introducing translators like Venuti, Fu Lei, Qian Zhongshu and Eugene Nida, the paper demonstrates domestication and foreignization, and then discusses them in the film titles. Finally, the paper elaborates the reasons and examples behind domestication and foreignization and a combination of the two. According to the study, the usage of domestication or foreignization is closely connected with the linguistic characteristics and cultural background of English and Chinese. Besides, these two translation strategies reinforce each other and are closely interwoven.