作者：諶莉文
出版社：浙江大学出版社
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
畅游宁波TourNingbo试读：
Foreword
Being Professional is No Easy Job at allI wish to begin by saying“I like Tour Ningbo”．
Why so? My colleagues and friends in Ningbo University expected me to write a foreword for their Tour Ningbo, China' s first English guidebook of its kind about sightseeing in and around Ningbo.For they believe that I am“a recognized reference professional enough in working experience, guidebook writing and academic research to have all the say”．
In addition, as the only one national-lass Tour Guide Extraordinaire in China' s top tourism province of Zhejiang, I have had special attachment both to Ningbo, the provincial biggest port city, and to domestic and international tourism I had professionally engaged in for almost 20 years before serving as full-time professor in Zhejiang University, known as one of China' s leading universities and“Oriental Cambridge”（Joseph Needham）．
Objectively, my book publications about tourism（like monograph, textbook, guide-interpreting, translation, etc）make up about a quarter of the total number of mine.I could be the first man to include an English description about ten scenic and historical highlights in the Ningbo Prefecture in my China Travel Kit Series（Hangzhou and beyond）, the only text type first available in tourism and academic circles then, specially designed and published for overseas visitors by Foreign Language Press（China' s only state-owned publishing house for foreign languages and publicity）in 2004 and 2007.Besides, my Greater Hangzhou, available in three editions and six impressions over the past decade, did appeal to English readers in such a way as to lead to a face-to-face interview with me proposed by several visiting reporters from seven British media companies．
Academically, there are two major categories of Chinese guidebooks dedicated to tourist attractions like scenic spots, historical sites and more.One category is chiefly an informative text, a highly formatted type consisting of required contents, including a description of sights and such information as geographic location, opening hours, admission fees, contact phone numbers, and local transportation.The other is the hybrid text of informative, vocative, and expressive types.If I am asked which category I tend to write, I will prefer the second one, which calls for more challenge. To be exact, it requires both professional competence in tourism trade and a more advanced level of trans-writing competence in the subject matter.Academically, this category in the source language（typically Chinese）is rich in text types including narration（informative, expressive and/or vocative）, poetry and couplets（expressive, aesthetic and/or vocative）.While the said China Travel Kit Series and Greater Hangzhou are of the second category, Tour Ningbo belongs to the first one, which seems kind of easier to prepare．
As a matter of fact, however, I' d like to argue that it is no easy job at all to professionally prepare in English Tour Ningbo, and a foreword to the book as well.Why? In my essay entitled“Traveling Abroad vs.Being Professional at Home（Part Ⅰ）”, I started with the fact that“I am asked from time to time why I' ve made it a rule to travel abroad annually and how I enjoy scenic wonders and cultural exoticism in a professional way.”To answer the above two“whys”and one“how”in one word, it is“professional”.In other words, being professional in both bilingual translation and subject knowledge constitutes the precondition for trans-writing a guidebook like Tour Ningbo.Associate Professor HE Anfang（Annie Ho）and her team members like Mr.FENG Libo（Keith Feng）did professionally in producing the book despite four years' hard work. To my knowledge, it is perhaps the first most comprehensive English guidebook about Greater Ningbo（my coinage named after Greater Hangzhou）, which consists of 12 parts covering as many as 60 tourist attractions.It has filled the gaps in the subject area and will be much sought after by a wide variety of Chinese and foreign readers and by relevant companies and institutions, such as FIT, international businesspersons, guide-interpreters, tour guides, college students and teachers（in the English, Translation, Tourism Management Majors）, white-collar workers, tourist hotels, tourism schools, and international travel companies．
Why did Prof.Ho and her team demonstrate professionalism in book trans-writing? The answer can be found from their book, which reflects their travel philosophy and translation philosophy．
Effective cross-cultural translation between Chinese and English requires deep travel.After breadth comes depth.The concept of deep travel is that of traveling“deep”rather than“far”.In terms of CSI（culture-specific items） translation, Prof.Ho et al have showed their deep thought and full confidence. Although CST' s are ubiquitous in the guidebook and thus most difficult to translate into English effectively, Ho' s team as a whole has impressed me most in this regard.And that will be the most important as well as interesting topic worth discussing in detail．
Firstly, the English translation of Chinese signs, which contain cultural differences and cognitive differences, has remained a long outstanding problem（which will be addressed in typical cases later）.The misconception has still been common in the Chinese academic community that such translation is much easier than many other kinds of translation like literary translation.However, I beg to differ.The world-famous translation scholar Eugene A.Nida pointed out as early as 1993 that the“most difficult texts to translate are not, however, highly literary productions, but rather those which say nothing, the type of language often used by politicians and delegates to international forums…The next most difficult type of text is one filled with irony or sarcasm, since in a written text the paralinguistic clues to the meaning are usually much more difficult to detect than someone is speaking.And perhaps the third most difficult type of text is a book or article on translating in which the illustrative examples rarely match.In fact, a book on translating almost always requires extensive adaptation… there is never a completely perfect or timeless translation.Both language and culture are always in the process of change. Furthermore, language is an open system with overlapping meanings and fuzzy boundaries-bane of logicians but the delight of poets.The indeterminacy of language is part of the price that must be paid for creativity and for the new insights which come through symbolic reinterpretation of human experience.”（Language, Culture, and Translating）Personally, I rank Chinese signs and scenic narrations（in the guidebook）as the deceptively easy type to translate, as it tends to mislead translators, translation researchers, and foreign language teachers into thinking that guidebook translation is a piece of cake.The sad as well as ironic truth is that many Chinese professors of translation, English and tourism have made gross errors or even stupid mistakes repeatedly in translating such proper names as names of places, persons, and tourist attractions, many of which are available in English signs．
The case in point is translation of“路”and“街”.Very few Chinese scholars in translation and/or English think that they do not know how to translate“路”or“街”into correct English.Prof.Ho was quoted as saying they originally did commit low-level pragmatic errors. They mistranslated“（中山西）路”into“（Western Zhongshan）Road”, which most of Chinese learners and teachers of English, translation, and tourism would fail to tell“street”from in terms of semantics and pragmatics. That is why these Chinese learners and teachers understand both“street”and“road”the way ordinary Chinese do“街”and“路”. To be specific, they match“街”and“路”with“street”and“road”respectively. Thanks to a native speaker, however, Ho and her team came to achieve an accurate understanding of pragmatic usage of“street”and“road”.Since“中山西路”is a busiest downtown street lined with shops, houses, and town buildings, the“street”is the exact wording for“路”（though it is not“街”in the source language at all）．
Secondly, in order to cope with CSI translation, I propose my trans-writing principles and standards, namely, case-specific or case-by-case trans-writing principles and standards.At present, it is significant and necessary to apply the said principles and standards by transcending the current regulations governing the standard translation of place names, which stipulate that Chinese pinyin should be used to represent the Chinese names of streets, roads, lanes, hutong， etc.For communicative purposes, therefore, it is more effective and feasible to choose the translated version of“Western Zhongshan Street/Zhongshan Street（W）”rather than that of“Zhongshan Xilu /Zhongshanxi Lu”. The thorny problem still popular is that many scholars are quite conservative in doing cross-cultural translation and less flexible in interpreting the relevant law and regulations.But I doubt that they will prefer“Kuahai Daqiao（跨海大桥）”to“Cross-Sea Bridge/Bay Bridge”, if 跨海大桥 is indeed a name of place for translation．
Thirdly, when it comes to economy and idiomaticity-two key yardsticks for measuring good CSI translation, still a lot of names for Chinese historical sites are rather wordy in their translated names.“碑林”and“国家/省/市/县（级）重点文物保护单位”are illustrative examples worth citing nationwide.Let me share with you my related research as well as practical experience as I did guide-interpreting studies in the mid and late 1980s.Despite my findings and usage available in my academic papers and monographs as late as the early st21century but left somewhat unnoticed so far, I have not failed to make use of most economic expressions in English even 25 years ago, which have earned full recognition as idiomatic by native speakers visiting China．
Let us make a comparative study of related translations.The translation of“明州碑林”found in the book is“the Mingzhou Forest of Stone Tablets”（6 words）. However, the translation would be more economical if it were“Mingzhou Steles（Forest）”（2 -3 words）.“Stele/stela”is an archaeological term, which means“carved or inscribed stone slab or pillar used for commemorative purposes”（cited from Merriam Webster' s Collegiate Dictionary;underline mine）.But, “tablet”does not necessarily stand for a stone one with inscriptions; it can be one of metal or wood bearing nothing．
Another translation found in the same book is“the national-level key cultural relics unit under state protection”, a 10-word translated name for the 10-character Chinese name“全国重点文物保护单位”.For one thing, however, the TL name is too long to remember; for another, it is not recommendable as a dictionary entry.Instead, “national monument”would be far more economical.This set expression“（national）monument”contains all essential factors in the original Chinese name.It is defined by Merriam Webster' s thCollegiate Dictionary（the 10 edition）as“a place of historic, scenic, or scientific interest set aside for preservation usu.by presidential proclamation”.To follow suit, “provincial/municipal/county monument”can be the right diction in English for“省/市/县级重点文物保护单位”respectively．
Fourthly, in terms of effective translation of more CSI of different sorts like scenic spots containing“spring”or“pavilion”and culture-loaded flowers native to China, the tourist-oriented translation strategy should apply.The pinyin-oriented strategy and Latin-oriented principle would be the last resort.For instance, who could fully understand“Linglong Spring”, “Qingzhang Pavilion”and“Jixiang Pavilion”? Who would be botanically well trained so as to decode“osmanthus fragrans and Osmanthus fragrans var.semperflorens”？
To put these CSI across to English-speaking tourists, target language-oriented translation and flexible translation of source culture-loaded names（of tourist attractions）would do the trick. According to my first-hand long-term professional experience, semantic translation in plain English has proved effective in many cases.Therefore, my translations for these CSI are proposed as follows：
● 灵龙泉———Divine Dragon Spring；
● 青幛亭———Green Banner Pavilion；
● 吉祥亭———Auspicious Pavilion；
● 金桂——— golden osmanthus；
● 银桂———silver osmanthus；
● 丹桂———orange osmanthus；
● 四季桂———four-season osmanthus．
Moreover, I should add that“osmanthus”sounds very Chinese（Greek）to most English tourists, but it is Hobson' s choice.We have to work hard and make osmanthus culturally accessible．
Fifthly, being bilingually and biculturally competent constitutes the basis for producing the best possible translation in the target language.To illustrate my point, I just cite only two cases for the translation of“入口”due to space limitation.The first case concerns concise translation related to Tour Ningbo， while the second one is about important correction of sign mistranslation outside China Pavilion in World Expo 2010, held in Shanghai known for one of the strong translation teams in China．
In Tour Ningbo, a number of wordy translations of“…入口”can be found. For example, “保国寺风景区停车场入口处”was rendered into“Entrance of Car Park of Baoguo Temple Scenic Area”.Why is it not“Car Park Entrance of Baoguo Temple Scenic Area”? The wordiness might be ascribed to a lack of target language sensitivity or exposure to English on the part of a translator．
However, both a severe lack of TL sensitivity and a habitual way of Chinese thinking that have given rise to glaring errors will be illustrated below. Presumably, the mistranslated sign of“Reservation Entrance”to China Pavilion has remained completely unnoticed until the writer of this Foreword paid a second visit to China Pavilion in the late summer of 2011 when not so many visitors were available around the signposts of the pavilion entrance. The same error was duplicated in the bilingual brochure of China Pavilion．
My TL sense told me then that“Reservation Entrance”had nothing to do with“团队预约入口”at all. The“Reservation Entrance”allows of one interpretation only.It refers to an entrance to a reservation, which means（1）a piece of land set apart for American Indians to live in; or（2）an area of land set apart for animals to live unharmed, without being hunted．
But, how do we translate“团队预约入口”and“个人/散客预约入口”into correct and idiomatic English? I would like to keep you guessing.At the same time, I expect those who know their stuff to do their stuff．
Finally, I wish to thank Prof.Ho and her team once again for inviting me to write their book foreword, and thus I did enjoy reading their book（both an unabridged version and an abridged version/to-be-published one）prior to publication．
Then, I hope that my foreword is just the appetizer.Let the readers get on to the main course while they are still hungry．George Chen陈刚Professor&DirectorTranslation StudiesZhejiang UniversityNational Day,2012
Acknowledgements
This volume has accumulated many debts in the process of its creation.The idea of composing a book publicizing Ningbo' s tourist attractions germinated in a discussion with student SRIP research team four years ago.The team led by Chen Yingying has helped with most field studies and some typescript work.I am indebted to all contact persons of tourist attractions, who provided timely assistance with first hand photographs and source language materials.I would like to thank Dai Qingrou, Luo Sisi, Miao Xuejing, Shao Xujia, Tang Jiya and Zheng Jiaowa, students from College of Science and Technology, for helping with proofreading.I am also very grateful to Yan Daoqin, Shen Yuzheng, Wang Zengliang and Shao Weiguo, who spent several weekends photographing places of interest in the urban area of Ningbo.I should give my special thanks to Dennis Frank.Dennis has been helpful from the very beginning of the project, and he read the whole manuscript of the book and made many useful comments.My sincere thanks should also go to Mrs.Li Guiyun for all the time and energy she has put into editing this book.I want to express my deepest gratitude to Prof. Chen Gang, whose critical suggestions and sharp insights have greatly improved the quality of this book.Nonetheless, any faults remaining are my responsibility. I should also say“Thank you”to my five year old daughter Mowen, who has been patient and supportive in her special ways by sparing me her story time and game time.Without her big and broad smiles, I would not have been able to hold onto this project for so long. Last but not least, I must thank Ningbo Tourism Administration.It is their sponsorship that makes the publication of the book possible．He A nfangNingbo UniversityJuly 22,2012
Introduction/宁波概况
Known as“Yong”by its short name, the city of Ningbo is located in the middle section of China' s coastline.Lying by the East China Sea and on the south flank of the Yangtze River Delta, Ningbo is naturally sheltered by the Zhoushan Islands on the east, separated from Shanghai by Hangzhou Bay on the north, and connected to Shaoxing and Taizhou' s Sanmen Bay respectively on the west and the south.Under its jurisdiction, there are the three county-level cities of Yuyao, Cixi and Fenghua, the two counties of Ninghai and Xiangshan, and the six districts of Haishu, Jiangdong, Jiangbei, Zhenhai, Beilun 2and Yinzhou.Ningbo covers a land area of 9,816 kmand a sea area of 29,758 kmand has a registered population of 5.76 million and a resident population of 7.6 million.Under the influence of a subtropical monsoon climate, Ningbo is mild in humidity and temperature with four distinctive seasons．
Ningbo is one of the cradles of the Yangtze River civilization.Here remain a number of sites which embody the spirit and wisdom of the far ancestors of the Chinese nation.The history of the city dates back to over 7,000 years ago when there was the Hemudu culture proving Ningbo is one of the world' s oldest places growing rice.Historically, Ningbo was known as Yin in the Xia Dynasty about 2, 000 BC, it was under the jurisdiction of the State of Yue in the Spring and Autumn Period, and was divided into three counties administered by the Kuaiji Prefecture in the Qin Dynasty, and in the Tang Dynasty it was renamed Mingzhou.In 821, the then Mingzhou government moved to Sanjiangkou（now the heart of the city where three rivers converge）and the inner layer of the city wall was built, marking the start of the city' s construction.Fourteen years into the reign of Emperor Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty（1381）, the city got its present name of Ningbo, meaning“Calm is the sea, and quiet the waves”．
Today' s Ningbo stands as one of the first coastal cities opened up to the world and has been specifically designated in the state plan.The economic center of the south flank of the Yangtze River Delta and one of the fifteen sub-provincial cities across China, Ningbo is among the nation' s first batch of model cities, historic cities and cities of tourism.It is a culturally developed city with a long history as well as a dynamic and modern one, known as“a major port in eastern China”, “a city of commerce”, “a city of cultural prominence”and“an ecological city”．
A major port city in eastern China, the city boasts the Port of Ningbo as its unique advantage.The unearthed wooden paddles and marine animal remains of the Hemudu site fully proved that ancestors who lived in Ningbo 7,000 years ago had already started to explore the sea.As early as the time of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Gouzhang Port, one of the oldest seaports in ancient China located on the Yaojiang River, was one of the five most ancient seaports of China.The exotic items excavated from the relics of the Han Dynasty and the ceramics produced in the ancient Shanglin Lake Kiln also see Ningbo' s trade with the rest of the world.With a history of over 1,200 years, the port was the departure point of the Maritime Silk Road and one of the three largest ports for foreign trade in the Tang Dynasty.In the Song Dynasty, Ningbo ranked as one of the top three cities in international business, the other two being Guangzhou and Quanzhou. After the Opium Wars, the Port of Ningbo was opened again to the outside world for commerce.Today, the port is one of China' s major ports in the east.As one of the nation' s top four deep-water pivotal ports, the port is navigable for 300,000-tonnage vessels, which is second to none across China.It has a total of 17 berths for vessels with a tonnage of 50,000 or above and over 120 container ocean shipping trunk lines leading to more than 600 ports of 100-plus countries and regions across the world.The port' s throughput of goods hit 430 million tons in 2011, the second in Mainland China and the fourth worldwide; its container throughput scored 13.51 million tons, the third in Mainland China and the sixth in the world．
试读结束[说明：试读内容隐藏了图片]