Please read another good example.

2.Rationale

　2.1Definition of Name

Name is defined as “a word, term, or phrase by which somebody or something is known and distinguished from other people or things.” (http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861739594) On the other hand, “A name is similar to a noun, but it is used to identify a specific person, place, or thing…Whereas nouns are general terms, names give individuality…they give more information than a simple noun offers.” (http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-9276020) That means names usually contain more information than a general noun does. For example, from the Chinese name Wang Yan (王岩), people could recognize the given name Yan according to its literal meaning “rock”, and also find many other information such as the name owner’s sex (mostly is male), personality (hard and firm), his parents’ wishes(expect their son to be strong like rock) and so on.

　2.2Formations of Chinese Names

Chinese names consist of surname and given name, with surname put first. According to Cheng Yongsheng’s (2005) classification, the typical Chinese names are formed in four types: single-word surname plus two-word given name, for example Cao Xue-qin (曹雪芹); single-word surname plus single-word given name, for example Lu Xun (鲁迅); two-word surname plus single-word given name, for example Ouyang Hai (欧阳海); two-word surname plus two-word given name, for example Shangguan Yun-zhu (上官云珠). In ancient times, the people also have their courtesy names, and even individual titles for some literators and educated nobles.

　　2.3 Importance of C–E Character Name Translation

“Chinese names …may give clues about the person’s place of birth, or something about family relationships, ethnic group, parents’ expectation for their children, sex, values, even personal characteristics” (Gu, 2000:104). For example, from the Chinese name Wang Shu-zhen (王淑贞), we are able to judge the owner of the name is a female; the name Liu Gang (刘钢) shows the owner’s parents want him to be strong and firm. Besides of that, Chinese given names also contain information about a nation’s language, history, religion, class distinction and so on. For example, during the period of Cultural Revolution, people are likely to name their children as Hong-wei (红卫), Wei-dong (卫东), Wen-ge (文革) etc, which are deeply impressed by the particular times. Therefore, Chinese names are not only the symbol of an individual to address to each other, but also play a significant role in social life and national culture.

Furthermore, in some Chinese classical works, writers like to adopt various ways to build the literary figures, and deliberately choose names for the characters in order to meet with their creative purposes. Some authors even adopt puns and play word games in giving names to the characters in their novels. For example, in Chinese classical works HLM, the author builds four sisters of Jia’s family named individually as Yuan-chun (元春), Ying-chun (迎春), Tan-chun (探春), Xi-chun (惜春). All these given names consist with two words, and share the same second word chun (春), which is featured as systematical naming rule in HLM. Observed from the semantic meaning, these names only indicate to the different period of the spring. Whereas, the sensible readers who are mastery of Chinese could find an interesting phenomenon: the first word in these given names as yuan (元), ying (迎), tan(探), xi (惜) could be linked together and transferred into the Chinese homophone yuan ying tan xi (原应叹惜), which means “people should sigh for the girls’ miserable lives.” Obviously, the author’s intention is to imply the four girls’ bad fate by playing word games with the help of Chinese language. Many splendid character names like the above examples are picked up everywhere in HLM. As a specific cultural factor, Chinese names not only enrich the cultural connotation of the novel, but also highlight the artistic achievements of this literary works.

As a result, character names in literary works are loaded with heavy cultural information, and serve the themes of the literary works. It is the important part of one success literary works. If the character names in a literary works are wonderfully translated, the TL readers would get the equivalent information and artistic treat in more or less as the SL readers do.

　2.4 Brief Review on Name Translation

　　2.4.1Two principles proposed by Newmark

As a matter of fact, few studies are made on the research of character name translation except for some pragmatic suggestions on the translation practice. In his book A Textbook of Translation, Newmark proposed, “People’s first and surnames are transferred, thus preserving their nationality, and assuming that their names have no connotations in the text” (Newmark, 2001: 214). Furthermore, Newmark states, “In comedies, allegories, fairy tales and some children’s stories, names are translated (e.g., Cendrillon), unless, as in folk tales, nationality is important” (Newmark, 2001: 215). From the statements, we find that two principles—transference and translating that are suggested in character name translation.

　　2.4.2The principle of transliteration

Transference is defined by Newmark as “the process of transferring a source language (SL) word to a target language (TL) text as a translation procedure…includes transliteration, which relates to the conversion of different alphabets…” (Newmark, 2001:81). Namely, as a strategy of transference, transliteration is only occurred among the languages that belong to alphabetical writing system, such as English, Arabic, Greek, Hebrew and Cyrillic.

Whereas, Xia Ting-de (2004:136) points out that Chinese belongs to ideographic system that consists of monosyllabic Chinese characters, the transliteration between Chinese and English is impossible unless it is in virtue of Pinyin, which is a Latin style intermediate symbolic system used as sound transferring of Chinese characters. Because names are mainly served as referential symbols, translators in dealing with C-E character name translation more frequently adopt the principle of transliteration.

　　2.4.3 The principle of translating

In order to preserve the nationality of SL, the principle of transliteration is used commonly in C-E character name translation. But Cheng Yong-sheng (2005:3) argues that many limitations are caused by applying transliteration in C-E name translation, which present in a loss of cultural meaning, annotative meaning and artistic meaning of the SL. For example, Lin Dai-yu (林黛玉) is a famous literary figure in HLM, meanwhile her name is regarded as the symbol of delicacy and sentiment by most of Chinese readers. But to western readers, they may feel at a loss if the name is directly translated into Pinyin. According to Nida’s (1969) theory of equivalence, the TL readers should respond to the message in the TL text in more or less the same manner as the SL readers in the SL text do. The principle of transliteration obviously fails to reach the equivalent effect, especially in translating literary works like HLM, in which the character names do not only play the symbolic function, but also contain rich literal meaning and cultural messages, as well as the author’s intention.

In line with Cheng’s opinion, Bao Hui-nan（2004）proposed that translators should adopt various translating techniques to achieve an ideal effect of names translation in literary works. He also summarized some strategies in translating character names in literary works, such as transliteration, transliteration plus annotation, paraphrase and adaptation (Bao, 2004:109-114).

　　2.4.4 Name translation and cultural differences

As it is mentioned in the previous parts, character names are full of cultural meanings. They are the key element of the literary works and play an important role in transferring the unique culture of the SL and expressing the intention of the author. Since languages are closely rooted into particular cultural background, and “words only have meanings in terms of the cultures in which they function” (Nida, 1993:110), cultural differences will lead to people’s different interpretations of the same object. For example, Chinese people think dragon is the symbol of nationality and royalty, but in western fairy tales, dragon is frequently described as the image of evil spirit. As a result, translators should have sharp awareness of cultural differences in dealing with C-E character name translation, in order to avoiding cultural conflicts and misunderstandings caused by cultural exchange. That is why Nida says, “For truly successful translating, biculturalism is even more important than bilingualism”(Nida, 1993:110).

.