论文总字数：29295字

摘 要

随着改革开放的深入，越来越多的外国人关注中国美食，因而菜名的翻译显得十分重要。语言不能脱离文化而存在，菜名的翻译不单纯是语言符号的转换，还是蕴含有中国饮食文化的对外宣传活动。

本文以淮扬菜为研究对象,首先，总体描述了淮扬菜的发展历史轨迹与菜系特点，跨文化意识培养的意义以及本研究的必要性。其次，概述了淮扬菜命名的特点，包括语言特点与文化特点。随后，论述了跨文化角度下菜名翻译的错误，以及菜名翻译与跨文化的相关性。然后，是基于前文的分析，总结出菜名翻译时的可遵循的技巧与策略，以及研究的局限性，并提出未来可研究的方向。

关键词：淮扬菜 跨文化交流 翻译技巧

2. Introduction

1.1 Historical Development of Huaiyang Cuisine

As Cao Ming (2004) describes Yangzhou in the paper Sampling the Delights of Huaiyang Cuisine, and So Much More: The ancient and glamorous city Yangzhou, situated in the center of the Grand Canal, is the crucial transportation hub and the opulent land of honey and milk. Huaiyang Cuisine, regarded by many as the best food in southeastern China, is one of the four major traditional Chinese cuisine.

Huaiyang Cuisine places emphasis on both smooth cutting skill and bland flavor. Many big banquets choose Huaiyang Cuisine as their priorities to entertain distinguished guests coming from afar. Manchu Han Imperial Feast was first recorded in Yangzhou, Huai Fang Anthology. In addition, most of the cuisine described in the famous novel A Dream of Red Mansions are from Huaiyang, which is source of the Red Mansion Banquet nowadays.

On the 2,500th anniversary of the founding of the city of Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, the world Association of Chinese Cuisine named it an international Gourmet Food City. For years, Yangzhou has served foreign communications along with its palatable food, showcasing a unique charm featuring the best Chinese and international characteristics. Wherever you see Chinese, you can relish Huaiyang cuisine. Yang Le (2016) said that in the paper Yangzhou Uses Food as Medium for Foreign Communication.

1.2 Characteristics of Huaiyang Cuisine

Yangzhou is located along the Yangtze River, and the ancient Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal here converge with the Yangtze River, among which is strewed with Gaoyou lake, Baoying lake and other small or medium-sized lakes. The splendid history and glorious civilization both thrive and glow here.

Freshness of raw materials

Through four seasons of the year, aquatic products and poultry are served in markets continually. Therefore, the ingredients selected for Huaiyang dish are notable for freshness, it also lays material foundation for cooking methods, such as steaming, frying, stewing, braising, etc. Huaiyang cuisine almost sets strict demands for materials-selecting, so as to give full play to the characteristics of raw materials in the process of cooking.

Sophistication of cutting techniques

Among the four major cuisines, Huaiyang cuisine boasts the finest and sophisticated cutting skills. For instance, a 2cm thick bean curd could be miraculously transformed into 30 slices, like strands of hair in shape. Placing skills is highly required as well in cold dish production. Meticulous cutting skills, adept and ingenious food-placing art, with the addition of color matching, all make Huaiyang cuisine exquisite and elaborated, like well-chiseled handicrafts.

Preservation of authentic flavors

Huaiyang cuisine not only possesses the traits of freshness, crispiness and tenderness of southern food, but also blends the saltiness, heaviness and thickness of northern food, forming its own unique style. Since the Huaiyang cuisine uses fresh produce as raw materials, it pursues the blandness while seasoning, which can highlight the inherent flavor of food.

Huaiyang boasts a range of at least 1,300 different dish, including those braised in soy sauce, where a marinade made of soy sauce, water, sugar, ginger and white wine is used. It blends the flavors that are light and moderate, palatable sweet and salty, nourishing but not greasy.

Attention to duration and degree of heating

According to the culinary tenet proposed by antecedent, “Manipulating fire, creating delicacies”, the changes of food in flavor are fraught with complication and subtlety under the control of flaring fire. The various peculiarities of food, like tenderness, crispiness, waxiness, fragrance, chewiness, are all embodied through the adjustment of fire. Huaiyang cuisine specializes in stewing, braising, steaming and boiling, with which to better highlight the natural flavor of raw materials.

Abundance in diversities

Seeing from the perspective of cooking skills, the Huaiyang cuisine is teeming with varieties and imagination.Take the renowned dish the Three Covering Ducks as an example, in the abdominal cavity of the domestic duck covers a wild duck, into which a vegetable-fed pigeon is crammed. Ham and asparagus as auxiliary food that are paved below form the most harmonious and unparalleled match in taste.

From that, it’s not hard to discern the abundance in diversities of Huaiyang cuisine. The Huaiyang cuisine rarely uses extravagant food as its first priority. The vast majority of famous delicacies are made out of mediocre and common materials coming from land and sea. The making of Huaiyang cuisine is like composing poems or drawing pictures, containing traditional Chinese culture and verve.

1.3 Significance of Cultivation of the Cross-Cultural Awareness

Cross-cultural awareness is the basic theory of this practical and pragmatic report. It’s the connection and communication of people with different cultural backgrounds. People from different countries have disparate cultures, social backgrounds, living styles, and believes. Therefore, they literally share diverse attitudes towards the same thing. In this research, the author uses this theory to study the case of translating Huaiyang cuisines and how we could properly convey our food culture to foreigners.

1.4 Necessity of Research

At present, although there are many researchers involved in menu translation, due to the differences in food culture, plus the lack of unified standard, for both of them will result in the misunderstandings and confusion when foreign visitors see them. According to the relevant information collected, the author will analyze the history and status quo of Huaiyang cuisine and the viable rules which can be followed to form a systematic methodology, hoping to provide ideas for the future translation.

2. Analysis of Naming Principles of Huaiyang Dish Names from Linguistic and Cultural Perspective

The cultural features reflected by cuisine-naming is an important part of social culture, to a certain extent embodying the cultural psychology, aesthetic criteria and value-orientation. Lu Yanfang (2008) puts it in the paper Characteristics of Naming Ways in Translating Dish Names. Seemly and proper naming of cuisine not only inspires the appetite of diners, but also enhances the aesthetic zest and artistic values. The infinite charm of language includes the beauty of rhyme, words and connotation.

Analyzing from the perspective of aesthetics, the visual attraction usually is based on fantasy and understanding. Excerpted from the paper Naming Principles of Chinese Dish and Aesthetic Connotation written by Li Junhua and Wang Juan (2012) In the transition from eyes contact to psychological beauty-relishing germinating from the recesses of heart, the theme of beauty appreciation penetrates everywhere. Hence, the artistic expression and function of cuisine-naming lie in unveiling the color, aroma, taste and shape of food, meanwhile remind diners of social culture, literal appreciation and romanticism.

2.1 Analysis from Linguistic Perspective

2.1.1 Structure of formation

During the denomination of Huaiyang dish, the four-words-structured form is preferred. For example, Salted Shrimps is called Boiled Shrimps with Salt; Salted Pork is called Salted Pork in Jelly, etc. It’s the vernacular linguistic custom that make the names of dish sound rhythmical and idyllic. The former part of dish names suggests the cooking method, while the latter part tells diners the main ingredients of cuisine.

2.1.2 Characteristics of combination in denomination

(1) Cooking method ingredients;

(2) Name of people ingredients;

(3) Origin of place ingredients;

(4) Color/Aroma/Taste/Shape ingredients;

(5) Main ingredients other accessory ingredients.

2.2 Analysis from Cultural Perspective

For thousands of years, the incessant delving of culinary arts brings the double enjoyment to the public mentally and physically. As Sun Yat-sen has ever put, “The evolution of civilization in modern times for our country lags behind most of other countries. But for the progress we have made in food, no one could compare with us.” The names of cuisine could be regarded as a mirror which manifest the long-standing history, and profound food culture. Zhang Kunpeng (2010) expresses his opinion in the paper Strategies Taken in Translating Chinese Dish Names from Cultural Perspective.

2.2.1 Names Entwined with indigenous features

China, with vast territory and ethnic minorities, forms disparate and distinctive food culture in the long history. Given the regional difference, names of dish are supposed to reflect local characteristics. “The appropriate translation of dishes names can not only reflect the basic information of cuisines, such as material, cooking skills, shape and taste; but also manifest the implicit cultural connotation, like allusions, metaphorical meaning, etc.” Wan Xuner (2016) elucidates his opinions in the paper Translation of Chinese Menu.

Yangzhou egg-fried rice is said to be originated from the “broken gold rice” favored by Yang Su, Duke of the Yue in the Sui Dynasty. When Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty visited Jiangdu which is called Yangzhou now, he introduced egg-fried rice to the people there. After innovations of chefs of various dynasties, the food has been developed into one of the famous foods with Huaiyang flavor, featuring the characteristics of careful material selection, precise cooking and stressing the importance of color and authentic taste. Today, Yangzhou egg-fried rice has been one of the most popular varieties of fried rice and it is served in almost every Chinese restaurant around the world.

2.2.2 Names Combined with allusions or folktales

The appropriate translation of dish names can not only reflect the basic information of cuisine, such as material, cooking skills, shape and taste; but also manifest the implicit cultural connotation, like allusions, metaphorical meaning, etc.

Take the dish Boiled Chicken with Alcohol as an example. Legend has it that when the great poet Li Bai trudged down the city, Yangzhou, he was totally infatuated with the scenery passing by. He naturally felt starved and exhausted at dusk, only to knock upon a farmer’s door. The host entertained the strange passerby with hospitality, catching a chicken and cooking it into delicious food with home fermented white spirits. Li Bai felt pretty grateful to her for her generosity and afterwards wrote a poem to commemorate this extraordinary experience.

1. Common Errors in Today’s Translation of Huaiyang Dish

Names

3.1 Errors Caused by the Lack of Cross-Cultural Awareness

Good Features and Bad Features of the Translation of Chinese Dishes written by Wu Huajia (2009) denotes the common errors in translation of dish names as the followings.

3.1.1 Redundancy

Reasonable translation of dish names lies in faithfulness, which is the basis in order to reach expressiveness and elegance. However, some dish names are added with superfluous words, which make them look complicated and hard to read fluently, just like tongue twist. For example, the Wu-ding Baozi, is translated as “Baozi Stuffed with chicken, pork, bamboo shoots, trepang and prawn”, which seems to be inappropriate apparently.

3.1.2 Nonsense

Almost every dish has its origin and cultural background, but translators are not fully aware of the deep connotation of food itself. That’s why it’s easy to find examples of wrong or garbled translations of dish. For instance,The Pork Lungs in Chili Sauce is translated as Couple’s Lungs, which is ridiculous and sounds horrendous. Evidently, it’s absolutely incorrect for that the main ingredient is pork or cattle lungs.

3.1.3 Discrepancy

The advent of discrepancy could be ascribed to misuse of translation tactics, obscurities of language and negligence of multiple meanings of one word. For example, the vast majority dishes are divided into cold dish and hot dish according to temperature. But, for foreign diners, they may take the word “hot” as the meaning “spicy” and “pungent”, for the word “hot” possess double meaning in foreign culture.

3.2 Brief Explanation for the Relationship between Cross-Cultural Communication and Dish Names Translation

Translator J.C.Catford has ever set a definition for menu translation in his view: “Menu translation is the process of inter-lingual transformation for semantic equivalence in the specific area of menu and terms in culinary culture.” From that, we could perceive that in order to reach the goal of cross-cultural communication, we have to attach importance to culinary culture apart from merely conveying cooking materials of dishes.

Zhang Yuan (2011) has ever indicated this in her paper Translation of Chinese Cuisine from the Perspective of Cross-Cultural: Due to the existence of cultural diversities, religious difference, ethical notions and taboos, translators are required to be equipped with cross-cultural awareness, enhance sensitiveness to cultural difference and circumvent cultural collisions and conflicts as much as possible, so as to carry out more effective cross-cultural communication. Additionally, being a qualified envoy who disseminate indigenous culture is a partial accountability for translators. China, is a huge catering industry, whose appeal and charm is not only mirrored by delicacies, but also reflected by long-standing and well-established cultural connotation.

1. Techniques Chosen for Translation of Huaiyang Dish Names Based on Linguistic and Cultural Analysis

As author Wang Chuanmei (2015) has pointed it out in the thesis Translation of Chinese Dishes from the Perspective of Cross-cultural Communication , there are varieties of ways to denominate dishes. However, there is a certain regularity to follow in translating the dish names.

With the improvement of people’s living standard, people tend to hanker after a much more prosperous life. The quintessence of translating names of cuisine lies in combination of external description and intrinsic romanticism, apart from directly denoting the color, aroma, taste and shape of cuisine. Reasonable rendition of dish could strengthen the appetite of diners and drive people mentally pleasant, with addition to endow cuisine with more powerful vitality.

Zhang Yuan (2011) illustrates her points as well in the thesis Translation of Chinese Dish names in the Light of Communicative Theory. Language is the main way to present culture to the rest of the world. In order to better convey and express the exact information of the dishes and further promote the Chinese food culture, translators should make different choices of translation strategies according to different features of dish names and communicative objectives.

4.1 Literal Translation

4.1.1 Starting with main ingredient

For dish names endowed with meaning of allegory, allusion, auspiciousness, and so on, foreign diners may feel bewildered if we just translate them verbatim. In order to get customers acquainted with material and flavor of food, we could apply the formula “Main ingredient＋With＋Garnishing ingredient” into cuisine translation.

Due to the ways in the processing of handling different food, such as cutting, slicing, dicing, chopping, mincing, etc. So before the main ingredient, sometimes we need to add proper adjectives to modify and describe the shape of food.

Examples:

西红柿炒蛋 Scramble Egg with Tomato

肉末海参 Sea Cucumber with Minced Pork

鱼香肉丝 Shredded Pork with Sweet and Sour Sauce

葱油鸡 Chicken in Scallion Oil

蚂蚁上树 Vermicelli with Minced Pork

四喜丸子 Meatballs with Soy Sauce

4.1.2 Starting with cooking method

Because of the miscellaneous cooking methods, in order to make the translation of dish names vivid, and transfer main information of food, we may take the following method.

Strategy adopted: Cooking method＋Ingredients

Examples:

炸里脊Fried Pork Fillet

蒸桂鱼Steamed Mandarin Fish

炖鸡 Stewed Chicken

白灼虾Scalded Shrimps

炒土豆丝Braised Shredded Potato

酒焖黄鸡 Boiled Chicken with Alcohol

清蒸白鱼 Steamed Fish

鸡包鱼翅 Chicken with Shark’s Fin inside

4.1.3 Starting with flavor

Pan Rui (2016) denotes the points which need to be paid heed to in the paper On the Analysis of Naming Ways and Cultural Connotation of Huaiyang Dishes. Due to the existence of different diet culture, eating habits and food taboos between east and west, the raw materials of dishes and flavors are the focus that foreign diners pay attention to.

Chinese cuisine has a wide variety of different flavors, such as sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and so on. Some dishes in Huaiyang cuisine are characterized by unique flavor. In order to accurately convey information and accentuate main taste of food, the following tactic could be taken.

Strategies adopted: Flavor＋ingredients

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