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Translating Chinese Texts of Geographical Indication Products into English from the Perspective of an Integrated Three-Tier Strategy: A Case Study of Duan Inkstone

Author(s)

Peidong Liu

Affiliation(s)

Guangzhou College of Applied Science and Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Abstract

This paper explores the English translation of introductory texts of Duan inkstone, a representative geographical indication (GI) product of Zhaoqing and a national intangible cultural heritage. Distinct from previous studies on the translation of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) texts, which tend to apply a relatively uniform integrated strategy, this study starts from the textual heterogeneity of GI products: drawing on Reiss’s text-type theory, the Duan inkstone texts are classified into aesthetic (expressive), narrative (operative-cum-expressive) and informative (knowledge-oriented) types, each with markedly different linguistic and cultural features. The paper takes Neoliteralism (Rose) and Reiss’s text typology as its principal theoretical axis, distinguishes Neoliteralism’s “signifier for signifier” from Venuti’s foreignization, and integrates the principles of “two types of closeness” and “Five Cs” into the translation principles of the three text types, with each type assigned a different emphasis. On this basis, an integrated three-tier strategy is constructed: “rendering form to convey spirit” for aesthetic texts, “cultural compensation” for narrative texts, and “terminological standardization” for informative texts. With examples from the album Chinese Duan Inkstone, the paper demonstrates how differentiated translation methods reflect the textual differences across the three types, in the hope of providing theoretical and practical reference for the international communication of China’s GI products.

Keywords

Geographical Indication Products; Duan Inkstone; Text Type; Neoliteralism; Integrated Three-Tier Strategy

References

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