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Professor Gillian Hogg
Professor Gillian Hogg is Pro-Vice Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University. Her research interests are
consumer behaviour, in particular consumers use of the internet as an information source and use of
that information in non-internet situations. With colleagues in Loughborough and Manchester
Universities she was part of the ESRC Cultures of Consumption programme looking at professional
services and the internet and this current research extends this research into the area of language.
Dr Min-Hsiu Liao
Dr Min-Hsiu Liao is a lecturer at the School of Management and Languages, Heriot-Watt University.
Her research interests lie in discourse-based translation analysis and interaction in communication.
Her studies cover the issues of the spread of culture (how the discourse from one culture influence
that of another), such as in the genre of popular science; and culture conflict, such as the display of
Chinese art in British museums. She has also engaged in interdisciplinary collaborations, in which
discourse analysis is used as a tool to uncover attitudes and perceptions embedded in discursive
events, such as in mathematic classes. She has published in The Translator, The Journal of Specialised
Translation, and The International Journal of the Arts in Society.
Professor Kevin O’Gorman*
Professor Kevin O’Gorman is Professor of Management and Business History in the School of
Languages and Management in Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. His current research interests have
a dual focus: Origins, history and cultural practices of hospitality, and philosophical, ethical and
cultural underpinnings of contemporary management practices. He has published over 70 journal
articles, book chapters, editorials, reviews and conference papers and recently published a book 'The
Origins of Hospitality and Tourism'. This is the first book to explore in-depth into the origins of
hospitality and tourism, focusing on the history of commercial hospitality and tourism from Classical
Antiquity to the Renaissance.
*Corresponding Author
School of Management and Languages
Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh
k.ogorman@hw.ac.uk
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Abstract
This paper argues that for translation to enhance the tourist's experience literal accuracy is not
enough and translations should be culturally sensitive to their target readers. Using the example of
museum websites as a form of purposive tourism information designed to both inform and attract
potential visitors, this paper analyzes websites of museums in the UK and China. We argue that no
matter how accurate a translation may be, if the norms of the target tourist community have been
ignored a translation may fail to achieve its purpose and may even have a detrimental effect on the
tourism experience. By bringing together translation and tourism theory, we demonstrate when the
cultural element of tourism is considered alongside the translation of texts, the need for linguistic
accuracy is superseded by a requirement for cultural sensitivity.
Key Words
Translation theory; Culture; Text; Genre
Highlights


Move translation from literal dimension to a cultural dimension
Introduce translation theory and genre analysis to tourism management

Demonstrate the importance of cultural awareness when translating texts

Show that linguistic accuracy is superseded by a requirement for cultural sensitivity
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READING
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A key element in effective tourism communication is translation of information that tourist
destinations provide to their visitors. The effects of translation on this information, however, are
under-researched in the tourism literature and similarly there is little discussion of tourism material
in translation studies research. Where research exists, focus tends to be on the quality of translation
in a literal sense, i.e. the accuracy of meaning or the fluency of the writing, rather than how the
translation conforms to the norms of the target culture (some exceptions are Kelly, 1998; Mason,
2004; Snell-Hornby, 1999; Hu 2011).
Fundamentally, tourism is a cultural experience and therefore effective communication must be
sensitive to cultural sensibilities (Prentice and Andersen, 2007; Pritchard and Morgan, 2001; Ryan
and Gu, 2010). Within tourism research, little consideration has been given to the impact of
translation or the norms of the target culture when conducting fieldwork. An exception to this is
Yang, Ryan, and Zhang (2012) who highlight the importance of appropriate cultural sensitivity when
conducting tourism research in China. In this paper we argue that for translations of tourist
information to enhance the tourist's experience, literal accuracy is not enough and translations
should be multidimensional i.e. culturally sensitive to their target audience and take account of the
considerable theory now available in translation studies.
In this paper we use translation theory to explore this theoretical gap in tourism research by
examining the translations contained within websites of internationally renowned museums in China
and the UK. Museum websites provide a useful context for this research as they are universal, easily
accessed and designed to both inform and attract potential visitors. We argue that no matter how
accurate a translation may be, if the norms of the target community have been ignored it is a poor
translation, and may even have a detrimental effect on the tourist experience. As well as filling this
theoretical gap, a further aim of this paper is to allow practitioners to ensure that their translations
are accurate and fluent, but vitally also considerate of the target culture.
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Tourism and Translation Issues
Previous research into translation issues in tourism falls into two categories; issues regarding the
translation of tourism information, e.g. brochures, guides, websites etc. and the challenges of
conducting tourism research that relies on translation. Within multiple language tourism research
the focus tends to be on back to back translation of survey instruments or questionnaires (see for
example Kim and Morrsion, 2005; Lam, Zhang, and Baum, 2001; Li and Stepchenkova, 2011). An
exception is Ryan and Gu (2010) who explored the tensions when engaging with a festival through
translation with different perspectives.
Zeng and Ryan (2012) note that conventional linguistic and possibly conceptual difficulties of
translation causes Chinese research not to be acknowledged internationally, they highlight the
example of tourism development specifically targeted at the reduction of rural poverty being known
as fu pin lv you 扶贫旅游 or lv you fu pin 旅游扶贫, which could be translated in English as ‘Tourism
Assisting the Poor’ (Zeng and Ryan, 2012). This is similar to the Western concept of Pro-Poor
Tourism (Butler, Curran, and O'Gorman, 2013), but the large volume of literature produced in China
has been overlooked due to lack of translations, or even awareness of its existence. Another phrase
is similar conceptually but also has a role in promoting human health, therefore Buckley et al. (2008)
argue that shengtai lvyou 生态旅游 (e.g. in Zhang, G.,1999 ) is thus a cultural analogue of
ecotourism, not simply a translation. Furthermore, due to the difference in these terms both
etymologically and culturally, any computerised search using the literally translated words would not
yield any results.
Translation in tourist publications occurs in a literal dimension with a focus on back to back
translation as poor translation has been shown to have a negative effect on tourist choice, for
example, it is seen as a barrier to participation in tourist activities (Allison and Hibbler, 2004; Yang,
2009) and can make destinations unattractive (Chen and Hsu, 2000). Recently there has been a
focus on using technology to improve the accuracy of translation rather than a wider engagement
with translation practices (for example Ho, 2002; Li and Law, 2007). Little reference is made to using
experts in translation or acknowledging the existence of translation theory or methods. The implicit
assumption within the literature is that translation is a stock process that must be executed in a
bureaucratic fashion without critical thought or consideration to the developments within
translation theory itself. From a translation perspective, much of the tourism literature's
engagement with the process is presumptuous and unsympathetic to the broader implications and
effects associated with translated text. The adoption of rigorous translation theory within tourism
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research has the potential to deepen our knowledge of the tourism experience itself as well as offer
practical contributions to its operationalisation.
Translation Theory
At its simplest translation refers to the relationship between the source text (ST) and the target text
(TT). This intertextual relationship was formerly explored through the concept of equivalence. One
of the leading figures in this field defines translation as "the replacement of textual material in one
language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)" (Catford, 1965, p. 20).
Although equivalence is an easily applied concept, it has been criticized widely among translation
scholars for naively assuming symmetry between languages as if all translators need to do is to find
the ‘right’ word (Snell-Hornby, 1988; Wang, 2003).
More recent translation research has considered translation as a process rather than a product. The
process of translation is not to find the corresponding words in another language, but involves a
series of decision making and consideration of the uses and users of the translations. Hu (2003,
2011), for example, in his theory of ecological translation advocates that adaptation and selection
are a "translator's instinct as well as the essence of translating" (Hu, 2003, p. 284). As to what
constitutes the base for selection and adaptation in the translation process, a common view is that
the purpose of the translation should govern the decision-making (e.g. Nord 1991, 1997；Zhang, M.,
2005). This moves away from linguistic equivalence to the functional theory of translation, which
advocates that a translation should be assessed in accordance with how appropriately it fulfills its
intended function in the target context, rather than how faithfully it relays the source text meaning.
In this paradigm translation is defined as "the production of a functional target text maintaining a
relationship with a given source text, that is specified according to the intended or demanded
function of the target text" (Nord, 1991, p. 28).
The Functional theory of translation broadly categorizes two types of translation approach:
documentary (which relays the ST meaning to the TT readers, and the readers are often aware that
they are reading a translation); and instrumental (which retells the ST to the TT readers, and the
readers may think that what they read were originally written in the target language). Under the
two broad categories, a spectrum of forms of translations is presented in table 1, according to the
distance from the source text.
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Table 1. Forms of translation in the functional theory of translation (adapted from Nord 1997:48, 51).
Documentary approach
Instrumental approach
Distance from the source text
Form
of Interlineal
translation
translation
Literal
translation
Philological
translation
Eroticizing
translation
Purpose of Reproduction
translation
of SL system
Equifunctional
translation
Reproduction of Reproduction of Reproduction of Achieve
ST
SL form
ST
form
+ ST
form
+ functions
for
content
content
+ target audience
situation
Focus
of Structures of SL Lexical units of Syntactical units Textual units of Functional units
translation
lexis + syntax
structure text
of source text
source text
of source text
process
Example
To
provide To
preserve To translate the To
preserve To
translate
word for word quotations in Greek and Latin unfamiliar
tourism
translation in news texts in classics literally cultural
information,
the sentence the source text but
with references
recipes,
order of the in and
also explanation
(such as foreign instructional
comparative
provide a gloss notes.
names)
in manuals as if
linguistic
translation
modern
they
were
studies.
literature prose originally
without
written in the
explanations in target
order to give language.
readers
an
exotic flavour.
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Heterofunctional
translation
Homologous
translation
Achieve
similar Achieve
functions
as homologous
source text
effect to source
text
Transferable
Degree of ST
functions of ST
originality
To translate for a
different purpose
from that of the
source text; for
example, Gulliver's
Travels
was
originally intended
for adult readers
but has been
translated
into
many languages
for children.
To translate a
poem by a poet
creatively; for
example,
to
translate
a
Greek
hexameter by
an English blank
verse.
The form of translation mostly applied to tourism information is equifunctional translation in the
instrumental approach, in which the TT maintains the same function of the ST but not the form of the
ST. The equifunctional approach is often adopted because the ST and the TT tourist texts usually share
the same goal, i.e. to attract and inform tourists. Although the means may be different across cultures
and languages, the ultimate goal is the same. Furthermore, the translations are usually expected to
function as an original text rather than informing the readers of what is in the source text. To produce a
translation as if it were written originally, the translators need to be sensitive to the conventions or
norms in which the translation will be situated. Several studies have compared the norms of English and
Chinese tourism texts, and highlighted differences in various aspects, such as sentence structures (Xiong
and Lin 2011; Wang, 2012), rhetoric style (Ye, 2008), and culture-specific lexis (Wu, 2004; Kang, 2005;
Liu and Li, 2008). Jin (2004) comments on how the bureaucratic procedure involved in the translation of
official tourism texts can be an obstacle and argues for a different mindset when dealing with tourism
translation. To date, however, most studies comment only on linguistic differences at the text level,
little attention has been paid to how a text achieves its function in the social context. For this reason
translation scholars have developed the concept of genre analysis (e.g. Hatim and Mason, 1990, 1997).
Genre is defined as the conventionalized form of texts which are derived from conventionalized forms of
occasions; they encode the "functions, purposes and meanings embodied in those social occasions"
(Hatim and Mason, 1990, p. 241). To achieve equifunctional translation, the translator needs to seek
"equivalence" at the genre level, rather than in the linguistic level. To take the translation of tourism
brochures as an example: if the aim of a translation is to achieve the same function as the source text,
when the translation is presented to the target readers they should easily recognize the text as a
tourism brochure, based on their experience with other tourism brochures in their mother tongue. This
means that the translator may have to remove some parts of the source text or to add some features
which are typical of the genre in the target language. Unlike the literal view of translation which takes
the source text as the yardstick for translation decisions, translation in this functional view places less
emphasis on the source text and more on the purpose of the translated text (Vermeer 1982, as
translated in Shuttleworth and Cowie, 1997, p. 182). When considering the translation of tourism
information therefore, we need to explore both the accuracy of the literal translation and the cultural
expectations of the genre.
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Methodology
Data Collection: Creating a corpus
Since the 1990s translation studies have adopted a corpus-based approach to explore texts and their
translations. The purpose of a corpus, as explained by Hunston (2002, p. 20) is to tell us what language is
like. The main argument in favour of using a corpus is that it forms “a more reliable guide to language
use than native speaker intuition” (Hunston, 2002, p. 20). A native speaker “has experience of very
much more language than is contained in even the largest corpus, much of that experience remains
hidden from introspection”. Moreover, corpus linguistics was introduced as linguistic analysis and
tended to be based on a researcher’s intuition. For example, if we want to see if the translated text
conforms to cultural norms by relying on native speakers and their intuition we can establish that ‘this
text does (not) look like a xxx in my country’. However, intuition is not always reliable and often cannot
be explained. Corpora exist in different forms, from the large scale quantitative ones used to explore
universal features of all translated texts (Ghadessy and Gao, 2001; Hu and Zhu 2008; Mauranen and
Kujamäki, 2004; Olohan and Baker, 2000) to the smaller and more focused ones commonly used to
investigate linguistic features in a specific genre (Bosseaux, 2004; Li and Wang 2009; Munday, 1998). In
this research we have compiled a comparatively small corpus as these can “be honed to very specific
genres and sub-genres" (Sinclair, 2001, p. xiii).
In order to assess the quality of translations we compare websites with genres in the same language. To
this end we compiled two sets of English and Chinese museum websites based on five leading museums.
We used the websites of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the Capital Museum, Beijing
subdivided into four distinct groups: the English source text of the Victoria & Albert Museum (VAM-ST)
and its Chinese translation (VAM-TT), the Chinese source text of the Beijing Capital Museum, (BCM-ST)
and its Chinese translation (BCM-TT). In addition we compiled a comparable English museum corpus
(EMT) and a Chinese museum corpus (CMT). Table 2 shows word counts of the six groups under
investigation. These have been segmented for the purpose of this study, and in the case of the Chinese
sites the word count given in the table represents the number of words rather than characters.
The English museum texts consist of visitor information from the Victoria & Albert Museum, the British
Museum, National Museum of Scotland, Museum of London, and the Science Museum of London. The
Chinese museum texts consist of visitor information from the Beijing Capital Museum, National Museum
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of China, The Palace Museum, Shanghai Art Museum, and the China Science and Technology Museum.
In order to ensure comparability, the corpora in this study only include the texts which function to
provide instructions or general information to visitors – such as transportation, tickets, café, disabled
access, shops, and do not include texts related to the content of exhibitions. After the webpages which
meet the criteria of the selection are downloaded, the texts are converted to the format of plain texts
and imported to the corpus software Paraconc, which allows the retrieval of data on the patterns of the
texts, including the word frequency list.
Group
Words
Victoria & Albert
Beijing Capital
Victoria & Albert
Beijing Capital
English Museum
Chinese Museum
Source Text
Source Text
Translated Text
Translated Text
Texts
Texts
(VAM-ST)
(BCM-ST)
(VAM-TT)
(BCM-TT)
(EMT)
(CMT)
1,956
1,737
932
1,554
8,239
8,072
Table 2: Corpus compiled for the study
This structure allows for analysis to take place in two distinct dimensions: literal and cultural (illustrated
in Figure 1: Dimensions of Translation Analysis). Two-fold comparison between the versions of the
Victoria and Albert Museum (VAM-ST and VAM-TT) and the versions of the Beijing Capital Museum
(BCM-ST and BCM-TT) allows the data to be interrogated for literal accuracy in translation (represented
by the light grey on Figure 1). Comparison between the Chinese version of the Beijing Capital Museum
and the Chinese version of Victoria and Albert Museum (BCM-ST and VAM-TT) and the English version of
the Victoria and Albert Museum and the English version of the Beijing Capital Museum (VAM-ST and
BCM-TT) and more generally the English Museum Texts (EMT) with the Chinese Museum Texts (CMT)
allows for the difference in the cultural dimension to be investigated (represented by the dark grey
arrow on Figure1).
These two levels of analysis allow us to investigate how accurate the literal translation is whilst also
exploring if the cultural norms of the target community have been addressed.
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Figure 1: Dimensions of Translation Analysis
Analytical Approach: Genre Analysis
As discussed above, our analytical approach is adopted from critical genre analysis (Bhatia 2004). Genre
studies developed from focusing on the description of grammatical features or moves in texts, to
exploring genre as “a powerful, ideologically active, and historically changing shaper of texts, meanings,
and social actions” (Bawarshi and Reiff, 2010, p. 4). Genre analysis is therefore “multidimensional,
multidisciplinary and multi-perspective” (Bhatia, 2004, p. 155), and divides the investigative analysis into
three distinct stages, each focusing on a different space:
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
Textual
Space:
Lexico-grammatical
features,
rhetorical
moves,
discourse
strategies,
intertextuality, etc.;

Socio-Cognitive (tactical and professional) Space: Correlation between text-internal and textexternal factors, participant relationships and the way they use the genre;

Social Space: Social identities, social structures and the functioning of social institutions through
discursive practices.
Based on Bhatia’s (2004) model, our analytical approach (summarised in Table 3: Theoretical Framework
used to investigate the websites) is:

Textual Space: How are the visitors addressed, how the museum refers to itself, and what is the
level of (in)formality?

Socio-Cognitive Space: How does the text intend to influence the visitors? For example,
argumentative texts or instructional texts have different communicative purposes, and create a
different relationship with the readers.

Social Space: Relationship between museum and society i.e. how is the role of museum
reflected in the texts? For example, is it an entertainment site, a research organization, or a
cultural centre and what experience are visitors expected to have in museums?
Space
Textual
Socio-cognitive
Social
Illustration
Features selected for investigation
The lexical-grammar components 100 most frequent words, address terms,
of the websites
modal verbs
The communicative goal of the Text type, non-verbal presentation of the
website
websites
The social value of the museum Evaluative
adjectives,
extra-textual
reflected in the website
information
Table 3: Theoretical framework used to investigate the websites
This will allow us to examine both the accuracy and whether or not the translations deviate from or
accommodate the genre convention of the original versions whilst allowing a cross-cultural comparison.
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Results and Analysis
The source text and the target text
A comparison of the two sets of source texts and translations shows that the source text is generally
relayed “accurately” (in the literal sense) without distortions, and the source texts also conform to the
grammar of the target language. There are some translation shifts, but they are more likely to be
conscious shifts rather than mistakes.
For example, in the V&A website, the Chinese translation has a tendency to shift towards a more polite
manner, by adding the honorific second person pronoun "您 nin" and politeness markers such as "请
qing" [please]. Example 1 illustrates the shifts.
Example 1
(ST)Download PDF map of galleries layout and contents (in English). Maps are available at all entrance
points to the museum.
(TT) 请下载标注画廊布局与展览内容的 PDF 格式的电子地图（英文版）. 您也可以在博物馆的任意
一个入口处获取纸质地图。
(BT) Please download PDF map with labels of galleries layout and exhibition content. You (in honorific
form) can also request paper map at any entrances of the museum.
In the Capital Museum of Beijing, there are also some consciously-made additions. For example, the
following passage of the regulations is added on the top of the English page of the ticket service.
Example 2
According to a Notice on Free Admission to Public Museums and Memorial Halls, Capital Museum has
offered free admission to visitors since 28 March 2008. The Notice was jointly issued by the Department
of Central Propaganda, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Culture, and the State Administration Bureau for
the Preservation of Cultural Heritage and Historical Relics.
The reason why this passage is considered necessary in the English translation but not in the Chinese
original is not known, but the addition presents the ticket service page in a more authoritative voice.
Overall, as two of the leading museums in the UK and in China, the quality of their translations with
regard to accuracy and the use of target languages is much better than those commented in previous
studies (Kelly 1997, Sang 2011, Snell-Hornby 1999, for example). Whether accurate relay of the source
text alone is the best strategy for the museum websites is now explored.
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Genre conventions in English and Chinese museum websites
The English and Chinese museum websites are examined in the three spaces in Bhatia’s (2004) model of
critical genre analysis.
Textual space
In the textual space, the 100 most frequently occurring words in the English and Chinese museum
websites were compared. Since both corpora are collected from visitor information in museum
websites, it is not surprising to see common words in both corpora, such as museums, tickets, located,
open, time, map, street, etc. Some differences between the two corpora are also expected due to the
geographical location, so words like London occur frequently in the English corpus and Beijing or China
are frequent in the Chinese corpus. However, further differences are found in the two corpora, which
can be categorized broadly into two categories.
First, differences can be seen in words related to interpersonal relationships – how visitors are
addressed, or how museums refer to themselves. In the English museum websites, first person plural
and second person pronouns (We, our, you, your) are on the 100 most frequent word lists. In the
Chinese museums, only the honorific second person pronoun "您 nin" is on the list and with a much
lower frequency than that of the second person pronoun in the English corpus. On the other hand, the
word visitor is the fifth most frequent word in the Chinese corpus, but has a much lower frequency on
the English list. This is because the Chinese museum websites often adopted a third person voice (e.g.
Visitors can find information... as opposed to You can find ….). Besides the address terms, the Chinese
museum websites also frequently use the obligatory modal verbs "勿 wu", meaning “not allowed to”
and "需 xu", meaning “required to”, whereas in the English museum websites no such obligatory modal
verbs are on the frequent list.
Words that are on the English frequency lists but not on the Chinese ones (or with a much lower
frequency) include disabled, café, cycle, accessibility, eating, etc. Words that are on the Chinese lists but
not on the English frequency lists (or with a much lower frequency) include valid, identification
document, reservation. Differences in lexical profiles of the websites can have implications in the sociocognitive and social spaces.
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Socio-cognitive space
In the social-cognitive space, the objective is to interpret the textual components as identified in the
previous section and explore why the texts are constructed in such a way to achieve its communicative
purpose.
The English corpus uses more terms of address, in particular, frequent uses of second person pronouns
to manage the relationship with the visitors. First person plural pronouns such as our collections, our
galleries, and our café in reference to facilities in the museum also contribute to the personification of
the institution. Other devices used to narrow the distance between the museum and the visitors include
uses of cartoon illustrations, short sentences, and icons. Also, English museum websites all provide clear
information on accessibility for different groups of visitors (disabled, family, children, etc.) which,
although may be required by regulations, contribute to shortening the distance between museums and
various groups of visitors. Based on these interpersonal features, it can be seen that the communicative
aim of the English museum websites is to show that museums are visitor-friendly, and to make visitors
feel that they are valued in this interaction.
The Chinese museum websites tend to be more detached by adopting a third-person voice, or
addressing visitors by honorific second person pronouns (indicating a formal relationship). This detached
relationship between museums and visitors is further manifested by the forms of regulations commonly
seen in the Chinese museum websites, which are not seen in the English museum websites. Example 3 is
one article from the regulations of Capital Museum of Beijing.
Example 3
五、酗酒者、衣冠不整者以及无行为能力或限制行为能力者无监护人陪伴的，谢绝入馆。
(Back translation)
5. Those under the influence of alcohol, improperly dressed, or those of limited mental capacity who are
unaccompanied are not allowed entry.
The presentation of these regulations with a detached voice gives the Chinese website an authoritative
tone. The communicative goal of the Chinese museum websites is to provide clear guidelines or
regulations to the visitors – make it explicit what they can, and more importantly, what they cannot do
when they visit museums. The reason that the museum websites in China and in the UK have different
communicative goals may be related to the function of the museums in their respective societies.
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Social space
The textual features and the communicative goals are closely related to the role of museum websites.
What museums are expected to provide to the public, and what people usually come to a museum for,
can have an impact on what is included in the museum websites. A simple yet revealing way to explore
the difference between the concept of 'museum' in English and in Chinese is to compare dictionary
definitions. The Oxford English dictionary defines a museum as “a building in which objects of historical,
scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and exhibited”, and other English dictionaries define the
word in a similar way. The Xinhua Chinese dictionary defines the equivalence of museum "Bowuguan" as
“征集、保藏、陈列和研究代表自然和人类的实物,并为公众提供知识、教育和欣赏的文化教育机
构” [a cultural educational organization which collects, stores, displays, and studies objects representing
nature and humankinds, and which provides knowledge, education and aesthetics to the public.] Other
studies on the development of Chinese museums similarly argue that they have a different function
from Western museums (e.g. Du, 2006). These definitions indicate that the perceived role of the
museum in Chinese and English cultures is different.
Further evidence in the corpora supports this difference. The English websites tend to be more
evaluative with frequent uses of positive adjectives, as commonly seen in advertisements. The strong
promotional discourse in the museum website presents museums as commodities. The advertising
discourse is most obvious in the museum shop.
Example 5
Visit our acclaimed shops for a huge range of gifts, jewelry, books, textiles and stationery, celebrating
the best of British design as well as wonderful finds from all over the world. ..Many items are exclusive to
the V&A, commissioned from contemporary designers and makers and inspired by the museum’s
collections and exhibitions.
Since this is a webpage of the museum shop, it is not surprising to see these promotional linguistic
features. On the other hand, the Chinese museums, perceived as cultural research centres, are much
less explicit in selling souvenirs on the webpage of museum shops. Compared with the explicit
persuasive features in the V&A website, the Capital Museum of Beijing website has the heading "文化商
品"[cultural products]. In this page, pictures of artefacts are presented, with only information of product
names, prices, sizes, material, originality, and physical descriptions, no promotional linguistic features
15
are included. The website simply provides information but does not attempt to persuade visitors to buy
the goods. Furthermore, information about cafés and restaurants included in all English museum
websites are often absent in the Chinese museum websites.
Overall, it can be concluded that the genre conventions in the English museum websites are
interpersonal, serving the purpose of attracting visitors, and presenting the museum as a place for
entertainment. On the other hand, the Chinese museum websites adopt an authoritative tone, serving
the purpose of providing clear guidelines and regulations, and presenting the museum as a cultureeducation center.
Translations and the target norms
Finally, the effectiveness of the two translations is assessed by comparing them with their nontranslated counterparts. Although the English translation of the Capital Museum of Beijing stays close to
its source text, it deviates greatly from the genre conventions in the English museum websites. The
detached and authoritative voices and the instructional regulations may not be expected by English
visitors of the Chinese museum, and the information on accessibility, cafes and souvenirs they
commonly look for are absent. Similarly, the Chinese translation of the V&A Museum also relays the
source text in a high degree of accuracy, but the explicit promotional discourse in the Chinese
translation is not a norm commonly seen in Chinese museum websites. Step-by-step guidelines as to
where to collect the tickets, how to collect tickets, what documents may be required commonly seen in
the Chinese websites are also missing here.
Assessing the quality of the translation only in relation to the source text assumes that the translation
exists in a vacuum (with its only tie to the source text), and assumes that different language versions
automatically lead to successful multilingual communication. However, users of translations draw from
their experiences with similar types of texts in their target language to understand the translations, and
therefore translations which deviate greatly from the norms of the target language may present
challenges for the users and will not achieve the desired effect.
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Discussion
The results show that original language source texts are generally accurately translated with what
Catford (1965) would define as equivalent words and correct grammar. This assumes symmetry
between languages (Snell-Hornby 1988) which does not exist between English and Chinese, therefore
the translated text may not fulfill the function of the original (Nord, 1991). Moreover, our analysis of
translated museum texts and the norms of museum texts in the target language, suggests that
equifuncational translation (Nord 1997) alone may not be the best strategy for websites.
The
equifunctional approach guides translators to focus on functional units in the source text, and to identify
what function the source text intends to achieve. However, following Bhatia's (2004) model of genre,
the functional units in a text need to be broken down into three spaces. Because the websites function
differently in the social spaces of the two cultures, the functions to be achieved in textual cognitive and
socio-cognitive spaces will require translation shifts.
English and Chinese websites are both designed to attract and provide information to the visitors. This
requires knowledge of cultural expectations of tourists i.e. the information tourists may expect to see
and how this information is usually presented. Our corpus analysis suggests that because British
museums are socially recognized as multipurpose centres which include retail, food and drink, their
websites need to communicate in a relational style with their readers in the socio-cognitive space
(Bhatia, 2004). This will be reflected in uses of certain lexico-grammatical items in the textual space,
such as reference to leisure facilities (cafés and shops.), or promotional features. On the other hand,
Chinese museums tend to be regarded as centres of high culture and education, their websites are
presented in an instructional tone. Chinese users understand websites as a place to provide guidelines
and regulations of entrance, ticket reservations and access to facilities. The lexical-grammatical items
commonly featured in the Chinese website include impersonal address forms, many references to ticket
reservations, and so on.
The underpinning assumption within the tourism literature to date is that the source text is worthy of
being translated in its entirety and that this will fulfill the expectations of the new reader. Our findings
suggest that what is developed for use in the source language may be inappropriate for the translated
language due to functional expectations, linguistic norms, cultural institutions, and other idiosyncrasies.
17
These will either render the content of the translation irrelevant or the tone of it inappropriate. The
benefit of application of these theoretical issues to tourism is that the relationship between tourism
consumption and translation is one mediated by culture. Tourism is in essence the explicit consumption
of culture and translations that facilitate tourism activities must espouse an acknowledgement that the
underpinning cultural sensibilities of the source inform its lexical content. Therefore, the underpinning
sensibilities of the target language must form the basis upon which translation is conducted. The focus
on cultural and lexical accuracy from the perspective of the source text only is most simply framed as a
‘red herring’, thus our call is for multiple spaces of interpretation to be considered prior to the source
text even being engaged with.
Conclusions
It would be beneficial for translators to understand how texts function in the three different spaces,
based on sensitivity to the target culture. The method we proposed to assess to what extent a piece of
translation conforms to the target norms is collecting samples of texts produced for the same or similar
purposes in the target language as the control group. The translator then begins by comparing the
profile of lexical items in the translations and the control group. If some lexical items occur in a lower or
higher frequency in the translations than in the control group, the translator can then explore the texts
further to establish what the communicative purpose of these items is and whether these linguistic
features are associated with particular values or perceptions in the society. Finally, translators need to
make decisions whether and how to adopt the functions of the source text, so that the translation can
most effectively achieve its aim in the target culture.
As far as the tourism industry is concerned, we posit the question for consideration: what is accuracy in
translation for tourism? Translation implicitly suggests accuracy of the lexical content of a source text.
Many of the exchanges that take place in tourism do so at a cultural level however, an exchanges that
are distinctly abstracted from the necessity for accurate lexical engagement. This notion permeates all
stakeholder exchanges within the industry both between organizations and consumers, between
organizations and within organizations. In a truly globalized industry it is imperative that cultural
sensibilities take precedent over arbitrary notions of the need to be faithful to lexical content alone: if
we are not able to connect cross-culturally then we are less effective in this business. Indeed, a Western
18
obsession with objective lexical accuracy perpetuates the apparent struggle that exists within the
translation activities discussed here. Translation forms a vital tool in the inventory of the global tourism
industry and it requires to be treated with the appropriate level of sensitivity rather than a
predisposition for ‘accuracy’.
The required form of translation does not readily subsist within the functional theory of translation
(Table 1) as the translated text requires a cultural jump. Practically this means that the translator, or
rather the website author, needs to enter the cultural mindset of the reader. Yes, they should include
the pertinent information from the original website, however they may have to include other
information required by the target culture. For example, an English adaptation of a Chinese website
could tell the reader about the availability or otherwise of retail and refreshments, and attempt to build
a relationship with the visitor. Whereas, a Chinese adaptation of a British website might only note that
there are other facilities available and subsequently describe the different uses of the venue in the UK,
which may help to put them at ease.
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