On the Translation of Lexical Items with Chinese Characteristics in The Economist Based on Lefevere's Rewriting Theory

摘要

The Economist, as a quite influential newspaper in the western society, began to set up China column in 2012 and has made quite a lot of reports concerning different aspects of China and therefore used many expressions with Chinese characteristics. This paper cited the editorials in the China column as the subjects, trying to analyze why and how the translation of lexical items with Chinese characteristics are rewritten in guidance of the three factors of Lefevere's rewriting theory (ideology, poetics and patronage) and evaluate the rewritten translation to summarize some applicable suggestions to improve domestic translation in this field. This thesis finds that most translations of lexical items with Chinese characteristics in The Economist achieve semantic faithfulness but always carry derogatory hints due to discrepancy in ideology, from which Chinese translators may draw a lesson and avoid similar mistakes.