Cultural Context In Translation Studies: The Arabic Translation Of Chin P'ing Mei As An Example

Abstract

Context, as the environment in which language is used, has a relatively wide scope. It includes not only the narrow context constructed by language units such as words, sentences and texts, but also the broad context composed of non-linguistic factors such as social background, cultural traditions and stylistic environment. Contextual culture refers to all the cultural elements involved in both the narrow and broad contexts, which play an important role in semantic expression and effect presentation. All Arabic and Chinese examples cited in this paper are sourced from the Library of Chinese Classics: Chin P'ing Mei bilingual edition, translated by Arabic literature expert Zhang Hongyi and published by China Translation & Publishing House in October 2017. Abridgments in the text have been duly noted. Based on Hall's theory of contextual culture, this paper divides the contextual culture in the novel Jin Ping Mei into three dimensions: material contextual culture, poetic contextual culture and dialectal contextual culture, and explores the translation methods and the resulting expressive effects in different contextual cultural situations, aiming to further promote the understanding and resonance between Chinese and Arabic languages and cultures.