On the C-E Translation of Chinese Internet Buzzwords from the Perspective of Domestication and Foreignization

Abstract

With the development and popularization of internet, there are a large number of foreigners coming to China so as to learn Chinese language as well as understand Chinese culture. The English translation of Chinese internet buzzwords can not only help them learn more about Chinese culture but also strengthen its soft power. Scholars in recent years have made a great progress on the study of the translation of Chinese internet buzzwords. Though they have written papers related to domestication and foreignization and take some examples to interpret their thoughts but they did not have a detailed interpretation to them.

This paper mainly studies English translation of Chinese internet buzzwords from the perspective of domestication and foreignization and choose proper translation skills according to their features. Domestication is the translation strategy of making text closely conform to the culture of the language being translated to whereas foreignization is the translation strategy that preserves the feature of the source text so that the meaning of the source text can be fully expressed. But neither of them is perfect. Therefore, we should choose proper translation strategies during translation in order to express the original intention of the source text.