Requesting literature materials related to graduation thesis, no limit to Chinese and English (English is best) Title: The impact of Chinese and Western cultural differences on advertising translation

Requesting literature materials related to graduation thesis, no limit to Chinese and English (English is best) Title: The impact of Chinese and Western cultural differences on advertising translation Word count english8000

Abstract] This article explores advertising translation strategies from the perspectives of ways of thinking, values, aesthetic tastes, traditional customs, cultural psychology, and national taboos. The key to the quality of advertising translation is whether it can make the audience in the target language cultural background produce the corresponding effect of the original text in the source language cultural background, which lies in whether it can accurately grasp the similarities and differences between the two cultures. This article intends to elaborate on advertising translation strategies from the aspects of differences in thinking styles between China and the West, differences in cultural backgrounds and values, differences in aesthetic tastes, traditional customs, cultural psychology, and national taboos.

[Keywords] Advertising Cultural Psychology Translation

1. Culture and Advertising Language Language is the carrier of culture. It reflects the characteristics of a nation and not only includes the historical and cultural background of the nation. It contains the nation’s views on life, its lifestyle and way of thinking. Advertising is an art. Advertising works must have artistic appeal, not only to attract the audience, but also to touch their emotions so that they will have a good impression of the company and products and then guide purchasing behavior (Hu Yi 1999). In order to achieve the goal of attracting attention, the translation of language and text in international advertisements must be meticulous and beautiful. Advertising itself also contains rich cultural connotations. It reveals the psychological characteristics, beliefs and values ??of a nation from one side. Therefore, the translator's understanding of advertisements should not only be limited to the literal meaning, but also understand its extended meaning and rich cultural implications. Therefore, the translated name of the product should be easy to read, easy to listen to, and easy to see, so that the pronunciation, form, and meaning are perfectly unified. When translating English advertising text, whether it is English to Chinese or Chinese to English, we must not be satisfied with literal translation and do "superficial" translation. The language translation must be both accurate and authentic, especially the "subtext" (message) or implication in the original text, so as to achieve the purpose, expressiveness and appearance, and achieve the three-union effect of similarity in meaning, similarity in spirit and similarity in form. . 2. Analysis of Advertising Translation Strategies Mr. Wang Zuoliang once pointed out that "the biggest difficulty in translation is the difference between the two cultures... the translator must be a cultural person in the true sense." As an important part of cross-cultural communication, advertising translation is also Also subject to cultural factors. Advertising culture has obvious popular, commercial, national and contemporary characteristics, so cultural traditions, beliefs and values ??affect advertising activities to a great extent. This article intends to elaborate on advertising translation strategies from the aspects of differences in thinking styles between China and the West, differences in cultural backgrounds and values, differences in aesthetic tastes, traditional customs, cultural psychology, and national taboos. 1. Examine advertising translation strategies from the perspective of differences between Chinese and Western ways of thinking. Language is a tool for thinking, and the formation of culture is inseparable from thinking (psychological culture is the direct product of thinking). Human language expression is dominated by thinking and is influenced by thinking. restricts language. There are big differences in the way of thinking between Eastern and Western cultures. Orientals advocate "the unity of nature and man" and "the blending of things and myself" and pursue harmony and symmetrical balance, emphasizing synthesis, induction and suggestion. Westerners advocate "the separation of man and nature" and "the distinction between things and myself", advocating individual thinking, displaying personality, emphasizing formal argumentation and analysis, and digging into details and twists for fear of incomplete description. For example, women's liberation is a focus of attention in Western countries. In a perfume advertisement titled "Why can't a woman be like a woman", the changes in women's image and status are listed, as well as the contradictions and confusions caused by these changes. The advertisement finally writes: Cabriole is full of delicuous contradictions.Exactly like the woman who'clever enough to rnjoy being a woman. As a feminine commodity, perfume here becomes the intermediary of women's "To befeminist and feminine". The creativity of this advertisement makes full use of women's concern for their own image, carefully analyzes the psychological confusion brought about by women's liberation, emphasizes women's thinking, and wins the majority of women's favor for the product, achieving a good advertising effect.

If the translator does not understand the audience's way of thinking, the advertisements made by advertisers will not only fail to achieve the purpose of promotion, but will also cause some unexpected troubles. For example, unique is a frequently used word in English advertisements, which to a certain extent reflects the way of thinking in Western society that emphasizes individuality. However, due to the unique cultural psychology of the Chinese nation that emphasizes uniqueness, it is difficult to achieve corresponding effects in Chinese advertising. On the contrary, the slogan of "Dabao" brand cosmetics in Chinese advertisements: "One bottle for my son, one for me, another bottle for my father, and one for my wife." It caters to the public psychology of focusing on family affection. It can be seen that different nationalities have different ways of thinking. Catering to people's way of thinking to arouse a sense of identity, accurately and vividly conveying product information to stimulate the advertising audience's desire to purchase is very important for successful advertising translation. 2. Examine advertising translation strategies from the perspective of cultural background and value differences. American anthropologist Edward Taylor proposed "culture" as a central concept in his book "Primitive Culture" and proposed that culture is a composite whole, including knowledge, Beliefs, art, laws, morals, customs and any other abilities and habits acquired by people as members of society are so rich in content that a nation has formed a certain society and social group after thousands of years of precipitation, development and inheritance. *** Consciousness and *** norms. Different national cultures are deeply influenced by their backgrounds and form their different values. Language reflects culture. The core of culture is traditional values. Advertisers take advantage of this and strive to cater to people's values ??in order to seek maximum commercial interests. The same airline advertisement has different value concepts. American Airlines' advertisement is "Bigthrillsmall bills" (big stimulus, small price), emphasizing excitement, novelty and low price, which are the values ????advocated by Americans. Another example is that in the mainstream culture of the United States, the pursuit of success is the overriding theme, and success and even the size of success are often measured by money. Based on this, a securities company launched this advertising slogan: 1. Because Americans Want To Succeed Not Just Survive; 2 The Will ToSucceed Is Part Of Americans Spirit. The final touch is The Success You Want We Help You. It is not difficult to imagine that this advertisement will Leave a deep impression on Americans who are extremely driven to succeed. Another example: "Carefour" is a foreign-invested supermarket translated as "Carrefour", which means "every family is happy and happy". Indeed, it provides urban people with clothing, food, household goods and other goods and has become a favorite shopping place. Coincidentally, the "Anerle" sanitary napkin also caters to the Chinese people's life values ??of "safety and happiness" to make women feel safe and happy. Another example is the translation of "Coca-Cola" and "Pepsi-Cola" which are homophonic to Chinese and have beautiful meanings. For example, the transliteration of the trademark of "Lucky" color film is "Luck" which means "happiness"; "Stone" means "as solid as a rock". The English trademark of "Sitong" computers fully reflects the perseverance of "Sitong people" who are willing to pave the way for Chinese computers to create a world-famous brand. A similar translation is "Robust" for Shanghai's tonic Life fruit milk. "(Robust) and so on. A French company once launched the "Opium" brand men's perfume in a certain area of ??China. It wanted to use the allure of opium to make Chinese men use the "Opium" brand perfume to become as addicted as opium. However, due to the company I don’t understand that Chinese people feel that the word opium is not attractive but hateful. This advertisement has severely damaged the national self-esteem of our people. As a result, this brand of perfume was severely criticized by consumers after it was launched. In view of the fact that the translation of this advertisement is best done by advertising. Translators from the audience country should do this because only translators from the audience country can be familiar with the values ????of the country and can translate advertising slogans that are in line with the thinking and cultural habits of the country's audience and are therefore liked by them. 3. Examine advertising translation from the perspective of differences in aesthetic taste. Strategy There is a very close relationship between the aesthetic psychology of the public and the translation of advertising.

Aesthetic psychology is a comprehensive cultural consciousness involving political opinions, religious concepts, lifestyles, customs and other aspects. The stable psychological structure of the Chinese people takes "benevolence", "pragmatism" and "patience" as its basic contents. The formation of a unique aesthetic orientation is largely influenced by the Confucian "gold mean" thinking method. The conscious requirement of aesthetics to be "introverted" and have the unity of beauty and goodness is more objective than the flamboyant idealist fragmentary thinking in Western aesthetics. Western aesthetic psychology emphasizes the beauty and beauty produced by subjective emotions, imagination, and intuition. The influence of human subjective ability in Kant's aesthetic thought forms the fully publicized modernist aesthetics. This aesthetics is irrational and has will, intuition, subconsciousness, etc. On the one hand, it grasps the aesthetic tendency of beauty itself. This difference in aesthetic psychology forms the different psychology of Chinese and Western advertising culture. Chinese people are culturally characterized by unified concepts such as emphasizing authority, underestimating facts, and a herd mentality; they have a small-scale peasant consciousness that values ??benefits over ideas, and puts personality first. The cultural psychological structure of Westerners is relatively complex, with "humanism", "cognition" and "behavior" as its basic contents. Aesthetic taste is a comprehensive cultural awareness involving lifestyle, customs and habits, etc. Advertising is an important means of product promotion to the public. It must cater to the public's aesthetic psychology. There is no fixed model for the translation of advertisements. Flexible methods should be used to reproduce the charm and style of the original advertisements to the greatest extent. It should promote appeal, temptation and popularization of expressions while respecting the aesthetic taste of ordinary people. Therefore, advertisers must have a deep understanding of the cultural background of the country where the goods are exported and understand the aesthetic tastes of foreign advertising audiences. This is particularly important in the translation of the names of exported goods. For example, there is a lipstick called "Fangfang" in our country. When Chinese people see the word "Fangfang", they will have beautiful associations in their hearts, as if they see a beautiful and kind-hearted girl and smell the fragrance coming from her body. This trademark is transliterated into "Fang Fang". Consumers in English-speaking countries can't help but feel a sense of terror in their hearts because Fang happens to be an English word and its meaning is a snake'spoison tooth. So what they think of is not a beautiful girl wearing lipstick but a poisonous snake splattering with venom. The sales of this failed lipstick can be imagined after the translation appeared. Whisper sanitary napkin is transliterated as "hushubao". The English meaning of Whisper is whispering and secret conversation, which is rich in the image and femininity of women's products. When translated into Chinese, what is conveyed to Chinese female consumers is that the product's functions and excellent quality give people a comfortable, safe and wonderful feeling, thereby achieving a famous brand effect. Another example is Procter & Gamble's shampoo product Head & Shoulder. If it is literally translated as "Head and Shoulders" based on the original text or translated as "Helen Sandus" as in Taiwan, consumers will feel confused and confused, and it is elegantly translated as "Head & Shoulders". The meaning of the word caters to the aesthetic taste of the advertising audience and reminds people of the pleasant sea and the image of a young and beautiful girl with flowing and smooth hair flying in the wind, which will naturally stimulate consumers' strong desire to buy. An elegant name is a kind of "packaging" for the product and a "temptation" for consumers. When translating advertisements, it is necessary to conform to the public's aesthetic taste. Only when a translated name produces a similar aesthetic feeling in people's minds as that of domestic consumers, the product will be accepted. 4. Examine advertising translation strategies from the perspective of traditional customs, cultural psychology and national taboos. A country and a nation have customs, culture and aesthetic habits that have been formed over thousands of years. Therefore, translators should fully consider the culture, history and customs of the countries and regions where the goods are sold and try to avoid words and images with cultural taboos so as not to affect the sales of the goods. For example: There is a brand of electric fan in China called "Bat" because "bat" and "福" have the same pronunciation. Bats are considered auspicious animals. In Japan and Korea, bats also symbolize happiness. But if translated as Bat, it would offend Westerners. Similar to Dragon, the dragon is a totem image in Chinese history, but in Western culture, Dragon represents sin and evil. The British don't like magpies and elephants. Islamic countries are very disgusted with Panda. There are also differences in Chinese and Western preferences for numbers. Japan doesn't like "4" because it sounds the same as "death". "7" has a positive meaning in European and American countries.

"13" symbolizes misfortune. It is best not to use “666” as a trademark exported to the UK because it symbolizes the devil in the Bible. There are also different preferences and taboos for flowers. For example, Japanese people hate lotus and like cherry blossoms, while Italians prefer roses and hate chrysanthemums. The color of advertising words cannot be ignored when translating. For example: most Americans don't like purple; French people hate dark green and prefer blue; Belgians are most afraid of blue; Western countries use white to symbolize purity and black as death. In short, there are all kinds of taboos, and advertising translators should study them vigorously. Advertising language carries rich cultural connotations. For example, the Chinese translation of MercedesBenz's word "pingzhi" immediately reminds people of what is said in "The Great Learning": "Organize the family, govern the country, and bring peace to the world." Peaceful cars are a symbol of status. If the car owner is not rich, he will be noble. Even if he is not the leader of the country or the world, he will at least have some involvement in both governance and peace. BMW, which is also a famous car like Mercedes Benz, is translated as "BMW" from the pronunciation of B and M. The modern famous car is the ancient BMW. The translation of these two cars reflects the cultural connotation of China and caters to the psychology of consumers. If you are not familiar with foreign culture and do not understand the aesthetic psychology of foreign people, you will fail in trademark translation. There is also a brand name for exported dry batteries called "White Elephant" which should be translated into English as "White Elephant" which should be 100% correct. As everyone knows, the fixed English phrase "awhiteelephant" means "heavy burden" or "useless and cumbersome thing". The marketability of this product due to this failure in translation can be imagined. In order to faithfully convey the information of the original text to the translator and realize the artistry of the advertising slogan, appropriate cultural conversion is sometimes necessary. For example, the trademark "Jade Rabbit" is translated into "MoonRabbit" instead of "JadeRabbit" in English. The reason is that the "Jade Rabbit" is the rabbit that accompanied Wu Gang and lived under the osmanthus tree in the Moon Palace in Chinese mythology, so it also became a synonym for the moon. Translating it into MoonRabbit reflects the style of our country's oriental culture and makes it difficult to misinterpret it in English and not mistakenly think it is a rabbit made of jade. 3. Conclusion The advertising language itself is full of rich imagination and great creativity. Promotion is its only purpose. When translating the advertising slogan of one country into the advertising slogan of another country, due to various reasons such as social culture, language, and national psychology, this translation is by no means just a one-to-one code-switching. Translators are required to have knowledge of language, social culture, folklore, psychology, economics and marketing, advertising principles, etc.

2. References:

3. [1] Wang Bingqin: Cultural Translation Studies [M]. Tianjin: Nankai University Press 1995

4. [ 2][American] Sapir: Theory of Language[M]. Beijing: The Commercial Press 1985

V. [3] Wang Zuoliang: Translation: Thinking and Testing[M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press 1989