Comparison and analysis of the source culture and the target culture of the TCM intercultural communication

In the process of TCM intercultural communication, as a source culture, TCM embodies the essences of excellent traditional Chinese culture by absorbing the essence of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism and gradually evolving into a profound philosophical and cultural system during its long development, meanwhile, it has accumulated tremendous medical achievements and has been abundant in famous doctors in almost all dynasties. In short, TCM is profound both in medical practice and philosophy and culture, which endows TCM the characteristics of cultural essence and medical uniqueness, in addition to its scientific nature which has been proved historically, all of the above-mentioned factors form the basis and guarantee of the TCM intercultural communication, in which TCM is a source culture. In contrast, the western culture shows significant difference as a target culture, from which the western medicine is developed. The major differences manifest in： western culture distinguishes mankind from heaven while traditional Chinese culture believes in the harmony between man and nature; the difference between micro rational thinking and overall perceptual thinking; the difference between individual standard and organic whole. Despite the great difference, western society welcomes TCM due to its unique effect, therefore, it is of vital significance to compare and analysis the two ends of the TCM intercultural communication, namely the source culture and the target culture, to find effective means to promote the TCM intercultural communication. The current tendency of the integration of TCM and western medicine has proved the possibility and feasibility of TCM intercultural communication.

An Investigation of Chinese Undergraduates’Ability to Translate Chinese Cultural Items into English and Predictors of Such Ability

College English teaching in China has long focused on importing cultures of English countries while neglecting to enhance students’English competence in home culture.The present research aims to investigate Chinese non-English major undergraduates’competence in translating Chinese cultural items into English and the significant predictors of such competence.With a test and a questionnaire as research instruments,this study was conducted to assess 82 undergraduates’ability to translate three different levels of Chinese culture-specific items into English and explored the factors which might have affected the students’home culture translation ability.The results show that the participants did well in translating the surface layer cultural items,but their performance in sub-surface and deep layer culture translation tasks was far from being satisfactory.It was also found that students had positive attitudes towards Chinese culture and were willing to learn to express Chinese culture in English,but their English learning motivation in general was not strong enough,and they were not given much input on Chinese culture in their English class.Students’Chinese cultural knowledge and their awareness of the importance of learning Chinese culture in English were found to be the two significant factors that can predict their performance in the translation tasks.These findings have implications for the teaching of culture and cross-cultural communications in EFL classes.

Applying Target Culture Language Teaching to Stimulate Students＇ Integrative Motivation

This paper proposes that the target culture language teaching can stimulate students＇ integrative motivation. Firstly, it elaborates on what is the integrative motivation, and then explains the approaches to carrying out target culture language teaching. Secondly, it illustrates that the integration method of target culture is carried out by making comparisons between target culture and native culture. The comparisons range from vocabulary and grammar to discourse organization. Lastly, the method is proved to stimulate students＇ integrative motivation effectively by comprehensive assessment of their learning result.

Influence of English as an international language on cultural teaching

The implications brought about by the present international status of English for English language teaching （ELT） are enormous; however, the aim of this paper is to bring to light the shifting notion of target cultures and elaborate on the possible reasons based on the characteristics of English as an international language （EIL） and its use in a global sense for international communication. Suggestions are then provided with regard to the teaching of ＂language-and-culture＂ for Chinese college students from a realistic perspective of current world uses of English.

World Wide Web The Fantastic Resource for Target Culture Teaching in ESL Classroom

In this paper, a WWW hot list which might be helpful in target culture teaching is provided and a sample lesson is given to illustrate the uses of WWW as great resources in culture teaching in ESL classroom.

Unfaithfulness or Expressiveness？ On KU Hung-ming＇s Translation of Chinese Classics From the Perspective of Translation Norms

As a beak with the traditional ＂prescriptive＂ approach and an important complement to translation theories, translation norms thus open up a descriptive and target-oriented perspective for the translation practice and study. For the successful access of the translation text into the target culture, the translator has to make choices between two languages, texts and cultures, etc.. Thus the translation norms are revealed. This paper shows the operation of translation norms as seen from the English version of Chinese classics by KU Hung-ming and analyzes why KU Hung-ming＇s translation of Confucian classics such as Lun Yu and Zhong Yong enjoyed greater popularity among Western readers than the translation of Western missionaries. The paper also holds that the unfaithful translations regarded by a source text-oriented approach were actually where KU was most successful in implementing his translation strategies to achieve expressiveness.