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1、A Study of Brand Name Translation in China1. Introduction With the acceleration of economic globalization and Chinas entry into WTO, more and more Chinese products are being launched into the international market. Consequently, translating Chinese brand names successfully into English has never been
2、 more imperative and vital than today. The translation of Chinese brand names is a kind of intercultural communication. It involves such factors as linguistic laws, cultural psychology, and aesthetic values. A successful translation of the brand name should not only transfer the information concerni
3、ng the commodity or service, but also transfer its cultural significance to the audience in the target culture. This applies particularly to culture-loaded brand names that have different mental associations in different cultures. According to the principle of functional equivalence, the translated
4、brand names should achieve a perfect linguistic unity among sound, form and meaning. This paper, taking Nidas functional equivalence as its framework, attempts to study the problems that are often encountered in translating brand names into English and suggest ways to solve them. 2. Brand names and
5、the translation Brand name, an essential component of advertising, is the part of a brand that can be vocalized. It is “a name given by a producer to a particular product, by which it may be recognized from among alike products made by other producers.”(Longman Contemporary English-Chinese Dictionar
6、y English, 1988) Aiming to build, reinforce, and/or reposition consumers perception of a certain brand, brand names have the following four functions: distinguishing products, providing information, ensuring guarantee and stimulating consumption. In order to build up a good image in the market and a
7、rouse favorable associations as well as purchasing desire in the minds of the consumers, brand names should have the following major characteristics: short in length and sweetness, sonorous and distinct, elegant and apt, original and novel. Translation is a more complex communication than that withi
8、n a single language because it involves two languages. (Jin (b) the translated brand name should have the same or similar function as the original one. The translated brand name should be delightful to the eye, pleasant to the ear, easy to remember, as well as be a perfect unity of sound, form, and
9、meaning. That is to arouse the same interest and psychological empathy of the target consumers, stimulate their aesthetic enjoyment and consuming desire. Toward the end, the translators must serve as receptor of the message intended by the source sign and be the source of the message in the target l
10、anguage. (Jin homosexual.” 4) Peculiar brand names in Chinese and western cultures. Owing to the striking differences between Chinese and western cultures, some Chinese brand names have no English counterparts (“cultural gap”). These brand names often derive from peoples names, names of places and c
11、haracters of mythology. “江南” (air conditioner) is an ideal choice for the make of air- conditioners. As soon as the Chinese people see the brand name “Jiangnan”, a romantic place with beautiful scenery and pleasant climate will immediately flash before their eyes. But few westerners have a clear geo
12、graphic concept of the place, the vast territories south of the Yangtze River in China. Therefore, it cannot bring the same mental association to its target audiences. 5 Criteria for an ideal translated brand name How to assess a translated brand name? Most marketing textbooks summarize the criteria
13、 for ideal brand names as memorable, distinctive, and positive and preferably suggestive of product attributes (Kevin Keller 1998: 131-132). These criteria also apply to translate brand names. In translating the original brand name into a new one, these criteria should be kept in mind. But translate
14、d brand names are the products out of their original names; they should share some relevance with their originals to some degree or by some manner. If they are completely irrelevant, and then the new names are re-created, not translated. In order to build a unified brand image across borders and to
15、make consumers easy to associate the new names with the old names, it is advisable, from a marketing point of view, to translate with some associative relevance between them, while re-creation means the total loss of original brand assets and new expensive promotion of the new one. With this conside
16、ration and prerequisite, an ideal translated brand name should not only have the general criteria for brand names, but should also follow the following additional criteria: 5.1 Phonetic relevance The new translated brand name should sound similar, if not exactly the same, to its original name. Transliteration can well reach this criterion. Midea sounds like Mei- di, MAXAM sounds like Mei-jia-jing, etc. In China, we can find th
