Cultural Translation Enabling a Dialogue between West and East
Translations are not only a way of communication; they are not only connected with linguistic competence, but with intertextuality, psychological, and narrative competence, being a cultural vector, a facilitator of cross-cultural cooperation. It has to be clearly acknowledged that translation functions not just as a trans-lingual vector of meaning but also as a vector of cultural specificity. For it is only through translations that elements of one culture become available to another culture. When Chinese literature ‘travels abroad’, it does it mainly in the form of translated literature. In this case, culture operates largely through the translational activity. Chinese literature bears significant cultural heterogeneities that are not shared by other cultures or at least may be easily misunderstood by receivers of a different culture. So, there is no longer only the case of translation of the work, but also the case of the translatability of the culture.
The present research paper aims to contribute to our understanding of the importance and influence of the cultural sub-strata of language and translation in managing nowadays cross-cultural issues.
Keywords: cultural translation, literary representation of China, literature reception
