Abstract

Dreams of Red Mansions is one of the four major classical novels. It is studied by many scholars after it is published. The communication between the East and the West has become more and more frequent after World War II, which leads to a hot trend of cultural translation. But the difficulty during the communication is different culture. Nowadays，with the efforts of scholars, the communication between the east and the west becomes more and more fluent. However, in the process of communication, Dreams of Red Mansions, as an encyclopedia of Chinese culture, is no doubt to be an important role to be studied by the scholars all over the world. There are many versions of it. And this essay will analyze two versions of it by Yang Hsien-yi and David Hawkes to study the skills of cultural translation.

Key words: Dreams of Red Mansions, skills of cultural translation, cultural communication

CONTENTS

中文摘要

Abstract

1. Introduction-1

1.1 The introduction of culture-1

1.1.1 Social culture-1

1.1.2 Religious culture-2

1.1.3 Material culture-2

1.1.4 Spiritual culture-2

1.2 The brief introduction of different versions of Dreams of Red Mansions-3

1.2.1A Dream of Red Mansions by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang-3

1.2.2 The Story of the Stone by David Hawkes-4

1.3 The reasons for choosing A Dream of Red Mansions-4

2. The Influencing Factors of Cultural Translation-5

2.1 Different cultural backgrounds of translators-5

2.2 Different translational levels of translators-5

2.3 Different social periods of translators-6

2.4 Different educational levels of translators-6

3. Comparisons of the Two Versions on Yang Hsien-yi& Hawkes-7

3.1 The translation of idioms-7

3.2 The translation of food-8

3.3 The translation of costume-8

3.4 The translation of names-9

3.5 The translation of poems-10

3.6 The translation of festival-10

4. How to Do Well in Cultural Translation-11

4.1 For the perspective of the translators themselves-11

4.2 For the perspective of the readers-13

4.3 Summary-13

5. Conclusion-13

Works cited-15

致  谢-16