![\"Chinese](\"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Translation-of-Chinese-Characteristic-Terms-into-English-02.jpg\" "\\"Chinese")
<\/p>\nChinese characteristic terms are usually more precise than English and other languages. For example, a character can mean both a word and\/or a sentence, depending on the context. You will notice the content in English is usually longer than the Chinese content. Due to the differences in cultures, traditions, customs, politics, history and even lifestyles, there are a many terms that are unique to the Chinese language and may not have an equivalent in English. This requires extra steps for explaining the context during translation.<\/p>\n
Conveying the correct message is seen to be one of the biggest challenges during a translation into and from the Chinese language.<\/p>\n
Below are two examples of the complications of translation of Chinese characteristics terms into English that may arise.<\/p>\n
The most common form of a Ch\u00e9ngyu is a four-character idiom, which is considered the collected wisdom of the Chinese culture and usually involves important stories, experiences, moral concepts, and even philosophy. Translations of Chinese idioms may require the translators to have a wide knowledge of the language, as well as history, to use the precise words in English to describe it.<\/p>\n
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For example, the term \u2018\u5b88\u682a\u5f85\u5154\u2019, originates from a story in the Warring States Period (500 B.C \u2013 221 B.C). It describes a peasant who was suffering from hunger, but was too lazy to improve his life through hard work. One day, while he was watching the hunters hunting in the field, the animals being hunted ran from fear and one rabbit ran into a tree next to him and died. The peasant was thrilled with this and considered it a miracle. The peasant remained at the tree day and night, waiting for another \u2018miracle\u2019 to happen.<\/p>\n
This story is described in Chinese as \u5b88\u682a\u5f85\u5154, which literally means waiting by the tree for the rabbit. This idiom is also used to describe someone who is stubborn and adopts the same approach for each situation, without thorough thought and analysis. However, if translated literally without the supporting explanation, it is difficult for the audience to understand the story in its entirety.<\/p>\n
There are about 5,000 Ch\u00e9ngyus in the Chinese language, which still play an important role in daily conversations, education and the language.<\/p>\n
With the reformation and development of the Chinese economy and society, there are many culture-specific terms that are unique to China and do not have equivalent in English. This, again, requires special attention during translation. These terms can be found in official statements, national policies, and programs.<\/p>\n
![\"Chinese](\"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Translation-of-Chinese-Characteristic-Terms-into-English-01.jpg\" "\\"Chinese")
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For example, the term \u2018special economic zones\u2019 (\u7ecf\u6d4e\u7279\u533a) was established with the announcement of the \u2018reform and opening up\u2019 policy in the 1980s. The central government provided free market-oriented economic policies and flexible governmental measures in these regions to attract foreign and domestic businesses.<\/p>\n
In Chinese, the term \u2018special economic zones\u2019 was created and refers to the cities that these policies were implemented in. Such terms occasionally appear in important announcements and has been used since. For example, \u2018reform and opening up\u2019 (\u6539\u9769\u5f00\u653e, referring to the program of economic reforms started in 1978) and \u2018Three represents\u2019 (\u4e09\u4e2a\u4ee3\u8868, a guiding socio-political theory ratified at the Sixteenth Party Congress in 2002), etc.<\/p>\n
In summary, translating Chinese characteristic terms is a challenge for translators, as it requires extensive understanding of the culture, social trends and history. This will sometimes entail a more detailed explanation, in order for the audience to understand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chinese characteristic terms are usually more precise than English and other languages. For example, a character can mean both a word and\/or a sentence, depending on the context. You will notice the content in English is usually longer than the Chinese content. Due to the differences in cultures, traditions, customs, politics, history and even lifestyles, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":25454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1746,484],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24043"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27229,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24043\/revisions\/27229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}