meaning, most of which are politically sensitive. The translation must reflect the original meaning accurately and completely. Thus, the translator has to use various translation strategies to bridge the gap, as can be seen from all the discussion in the later parts. But even so, the translator is still confronted with the dilemma of making the English version accurate or pure and natural. Under such circumstance, they must sacrifice the impureness to achieve accuracy. This is very different from the translation of other external publicity materials, which is target language oriented and the satisfactory communication effect enjoys the top priority [3]64.
Since government work report is mostly concerned with political affairs, it is often characterized by the political sensitivity [4]27. Cheng Zhenqiu, who has devoted his whole life to the practices and studies of the translation of political literature, points out that translators should “be faithful to both the letter and the spirit of the original text [5]8”. Also, it is imperative to bear in mind at all times the overriding importance of conveying the precise political implications of the original text [6]45. Cheng emphasizes that in political translation fidelity means above all faithfulness to the full political implications of the original. This is particularly so in cases where philosophical concepts, political theory, Party policies, strategic and tactical principles, etc. are concerned [7]114. Therefore, a good political translator must be equipped with “a good political sense, an acquaintance with Marxist theory and an understanding of the Party’s line and policies” [7]193.
Completeness is another characteristic of translating government work report. As the summary of both the past achievements and the future tasks, government work report is stuffed with information. And on account of the limited length, it is highly condensed both in its meaning and in the linguistic form. As most foreigners don’t know much about China or its policies, background information is absolutely needed to ensure the readability and to help them have a better understanding of China. This feature can be fully reflected in the analysis of “information equivalence”. [3]65
Apart from all the above, faithfulness, objectiveness and others are also important characteristics. When translators deal with the report, it is essential that they should take these characteristics as principles of translation so as to make the translation as effective as possible.
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3. Major difficulties in current government work report
translation practice
The general difficulties or problems in government work report translation can be
categorized into four types: Chinglish, lexical non-equivalence, inaccuracy of translating political terminologies or neologism and information impediment.
3.1 Chinglish
Chinglish is one of the major problems affecting the quality of Chinese-English translation, and it is the same case with government work report translation.
Joan Pinkham, who has worked at CCTB (Central Compilation and Translation Bureau) for many years, described Chinglish in her book The Translator’s Guide to Chinglish as “English with Chinese characteristics” [8]26. There are several reasons for Chinglish in the report translation. First, the nature of important political writings require precise version, so translators are always too cautious to change the form of the original to avoid political blunders. Second, influenced by the strict demands of political translation, it is difficult for Chinese translators, even with a good command of English, to break the constraints of original form. Moreover, though some foreign experts are invited to polish the version, they are also affected by the original form unconsciously, since some of them know a little Chinese or has became accustomed to the expressions with Chinese characteristics
[5]59
. The big problem arising from
Chinglish is not one of unfaithful rendering of the source-text content, but one of overmuch faithfulness to the expressing way of the source text at the expense of idiomatic English [2]11, which will greatly undermine the readability of the target text. For instance, the literal translation for “祖国统一” is “unification of the motherland” or “unity of the motherland”, however, considering the political position, it would be much more precise to translate “祖国统一” into “reunification of the motherland”. Taking “廉政建设” for another example, it was once translated as “construct clean politics”. But later the translators realized that “construct” mostly refers to the construction of engineering projects and “politics” is usually with derogatory meanings. So the translation is somewhere improper. It should be translated as “build
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a clean and honest government”.
In government work report translation, Chinglish, by no means an uncommon phenomenon, occurs in various forms, such as excessive intensifiers, category words and repetition [2]12. It is not an easy thing for translators to get rid of the tendency of Chinglish. Methods to tackle with Chinglish will be explored later.
3.2 Lexical non-equivalence
It is held that non-equivalence arises when culture and language display their discrepancy in Chinese and English [9]52. As is known to all, Chinese and English belong to two different language families: Chinese is part of the Sino-Tibetan language group, while English the Indo-European family. In addition, they share different culture backgrounds. Therefore, the difficulty of lexical non-equivalence exists in the translation. Translators have to express what the original Chinese language means by using the English language which bears widely different features
[10]25
. Vocabularies like “走后门”(backdoor deals)，“黑孩子”(off-the-book babies),
“关系网”(a broad network of personal connections) are actually not existing in English, so translators have to convey the meaning in a different way.
3.3 Inaccuracy of translating political terminologies or neologism
In translating Chinese political writings, translators inevitably face some vocabularies, phrases and expressions that translators cannot find any counterparts in the target language. These words are the so-called political terminologies [11]23. And neologisms can be defined in different ways such as newly-invented word, a new word or expression, or a word used with a new meaning. The Chinese language, like any other language in the world, develops continuously. A large number of Chinese neologisms can be found in newspapers, magazines, TV programs, radio broadcastings, Internet, etc [12]8.
Both political terminologies and neologisms are used to describe and express particular events and concepts, usually the guidelines and policies of the country. The usage of political terms is the common feature in both Chinese and English; but due to their totally different political systems and cultural backgrounds, it is very difficult,
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even impossible to find in English the equivalents of Chinese political terms, especially those abbreviations with numerals such as “物质文明和精神文明”, “三个代表”, “八荣八耻”, “一国两制” and so on. These expressions are specific to Chinese background and concerned only with China’s general policies. How to get these culture-specific political terms translated and understood is really a great challenge for translators. In order to express the Chinese culture and policies and to avoid ambiguity, the prior yardstick of translation should be accuracy in such case [11]23.
3.4 Information impediment
Information impediment is a common difficulty met in translation, for translators are impossible to know everything. So it would be a normal thing in translation if translators find themselves not able to understand some information, especially in government work report translation. There are a variety of information in the report, covering economy, politics, culture, education, foreign affairs and so forth. New words or sayings are usually carried out. Translators need to be familiar with all the materials, even all the background information, to ensure that while translating they could convey the precise meaning lying in the report.
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4. Strategies for translating government work report
In this chapter, based on all the above analysis, we will explore some effective strategies for the translation of government work report, such as substitution, subordination, deletion and explanation. To make the study more comprehensive and convincing, examples excerpted from Government Work Reports of Premier Wen Jiabao are provided.
4.1 Substitution
Substitution, as a cohesive device, means the replacement of a previous expression with a substitute. One of the noticeable differences between the two languages is that English tends to use “substitution” (including the use of pronoun, substitutes, synonyms and near-synonyms, and super ordinates, etc.) in the broad sense, while Chinese tends to use repetition or ellipsis [10]62. Here are some examples:
(1) 实现了千百年来围湖造田、与湖争地到大规模退田还湖的历史性转变。
This represented a great shift from the centuries-long history of reclaiming farmland from lakes to restoring it to them on a large scale. (2) 2002年5月份，国务院召开全国增收节支工作电视电话会议??2002年9月份，国务院再次召开全国增收节支工作会议??
In May 2002, the State Council held a national conference on increasing revenue and reducing expenditures...in September 2002, it held another conference...
In the former example, the character “湖” appears three times and “田” twice in the original, but in English, “lake” and “farmland” appear only once respectively. In the target text, “it” is used to substitute “farmland”, while “them” to “lakes”. By doing so, wordy repetition is avoided, and what is more, the coherence and logic of the context is more outstanding. The same is in the second example. Firstly, the pronoun “it” is used to replace “the State Council” when it appears the second time. Then the
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