Loss of Cultural Images

　　　Because of the differences between Chinese and western culture, some brands are translated differently in consistent with its actual meaning. This kind of “domestication” phenomenon can retain its practical meaning, but its distinctive cultural images are missing. A good translation should carry out a series of changes in the image level to enable the generation and image consistence.

　　　In the process of business English translation, cultural equivalence is usually reflected in the translation of brand names. Products like “Pepsi”, “Benz”, “Rolex” with good trademarks, sell well and make good impression on the Chinese consumers. These brand names are nicely translated into Chinese and set good examples in the translation.

　　　In pushing Chinese products into the global markets, enterprises make great efforts to improve the quality of their products, while it is a pity that cultural equivalence is usually neglected in the translation. Take the brand“Du Kang” as an example. When Chinese people see this brand, they may think about China’s long and splendid culture of wine. However, once brought to western countries, they may not understand the cultural images as well as Chinese do. To achieve good translation, we’d better add some notes to explain the deep meaning.

　　　In this case, the name of a Greek expert can be adopted on wine-making “Bacchus” to achieve the cultural equivalence in translation conveying the same information of the source language. The function of language is just to convey cultural images.

 

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