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1、Cultural Differences in Trademark Translation1. IntroductionWith the development of economy globalization, more and more products rushed into the international market, it gives consumers enough space to make choices. Therefore, the first impression of a particular product on the consumers will have
2、a far-reaching effect. As a product in domestic market, the first impression is mostly produced by its trademark, while for those in overseas market, by the trademark translation. A novel and proper translation of trademark can catch the attention of consumers at the first sight, arouse their curios
3、ity and interest, and further stimulate their expectations and desire. While some improper translation cannot function well and convey the necessary messages to the target consumers, which will unfavorably affect the market promotion.However, trademark translation is not easy, different nations have
4、 different cultures, culture deeply influences peoples attitude to their life, even consuming. The cultural differences between the original text and the target language often lead to some barriers in translation. Translation without dealing well with barriers is to result in cultural loss or misund
5、erstanding. So, it is of great importance to find out the differences in culture.This paper attempts to explore some cultural differences in trademark translation reflected in social background, value systems, customs and habits, then some strategies and techniques would be adopted in trademark tran
6、slation. 2. Culture Trademark Translation2.1Definition of Culture Culture differs from each other and each culture is unique. As to its definition, different studies have given many definitions of culture from different aspects. The most widely accepted one was given by Edward Tylora British scholar
7、 in 1871. He defined culture as “a complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by individuals as members of a society.” Generally speaking, people from two different countries have different understanding of culture. And l
8、anguage is the carrier of culture. It is an essential and important part of a given culture and that the impact of couture on language is something intrinsic and indispensable. Trademark language embodies the characteristics of both language and culture. Therefore, a trademark translator should comp
9、are the cultures and languages before he translates it. Translation without the consideration of culture may lead to barriers and result in cultural loss or misunderstanding.2.2Definition of Trademark An authoritative definition of trademark is given by OXFORD Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current
10、 English as follows: A trademark is a name, symbol or design that a company uses for its products and that cannot be used by anyone else: Big Mac is McDonalds best-known trademark. Along with the development of economic globalization and increasing international contact, trademarks have become more
11、and more important. A trademark is a commodity worth a large sum of money nowadays, such as Coco-Cola, Microsoft and 红塔山are worth $68.95 billion, $65.07 billion and 46 billion RMB respectively. In some degree, a trademark is the representative image of a company, embodying the enterprise culture, te
12、chnology and its credit. With various products competing in the world market, trademarks also embody different cultures of different nations. They are the direct advertisement of an enterprise and one of the most effective is to arouse the potential consumers interest to promote sales. So a trademar
13、k is of great importance to the enterprises.2.3 The Relationship Between Culture and Trademark TranslationTranslation can also be called a “cultural translation”, because culture factor is taken into consideration. Cultures differ from each other and each culture is unique, so it is of great importa
14、nce for translators to be aware of the cultural differences between Chinese and the Western languages. And trademarks are the windows to show the national culture to other countries. Therefore, one of the most important tasks of transfer is to solve the problems caused by cultural differences in the
15、 process of trademark translating. A proper translation has a power to persuade consumers to buy the products; on the contrary, an improper translation inevitably makes a great economic loss. For example, in Chinese culture, “白象” (literally meaning white elephant) is a trademark of batteries. The wo
16、rd “白象”will gives people the feeling of “clean and lovely animal”. When “白象” was used for a trademark, it was soon accepted by most of Chinese people. However, in English culture, “White Elephant” symbolizes something useless. So people from the Western countries may not buy a product that is useles
17、s. Obviously this English version referring to the culture-specific feature conveys the conceptual meaning that does not exist in Chinese culture. Even though there are translation equivalents in Chinese to this English phrase, they are quite different in cultural connotation.2.4 Function of Tradema
18、rk Translation A good translation is not only an accurate transformation of the two different languages, but a good rewriting or creating of the original text, which requires the translator be able to convert the denotation and connotation, as well as the cultural information of the original adequat
19、ely. It is an effective tool that the marketers use to attract and persuade customers to buy the commodities. It is a bridge between the target customers and marketers, so it should fulfill some functions as below: Firstly, the informative function. A good trademark and its translation is an effecti
20、ve form of advertising, which can provide customers with sufficient information of products and give them hard sales and convey the cultural information as well. To some extent, a creative trademark and translation can lower the cost of sales, because the creative trademark can deeply impress custom
21、ers and highlight the characteristics and functions of products. For instance, the detergent with the trademark ”白猫” White Cat (literally means to become white quickly) and the cosmetic product with the trademark ”雅倩” Arch (literally means to be elegant and pretty) are sold well. Secondly, vocative
22、function. From the linguists point of view, trademark translation is a special text with its own characteristics of language. The language is very informative, directive and evocative. For instance, Golden Throat 金嗓子 (medicine) informs customers with that the medicine is effective for the aching thr
23、oat, Safeguard 舒肤佳(soap) informs customers with that the function of the product is meant to make your skin smooth and your body comfortable whenever you use it. Coco-Cola 可口可乐(drink) gives consumers a sense of refreshment and enjoyment.Thirdly, the economic function. A trademark has already become
24、the representative of a company or an enterprise in todays economic society. Some famous trademarks themselves have already become an enormous wealth. The trademark “Coco-Cola” and “红塔山” are worth $68.95 billion and 46 billion RMB respectively.3 Cultural Differences in Trademark Translation3.1 Diffe
25、rent Social BackgroundChinese culture and Western culture belong to two different speech communities. The Differences between the two cultures make the Chinese language differ greatly from the English language in many aspects. The different social backgrounds are mainly caused by the different histo
26、ry and different religion and the different social backgrounds greatly influence the culture and language of a nation.3.1.1 Cultural differences in History Every nation has its own history of development. This fact will lead to different social cultures between China and the English-speaking countri
27、es. Many Chinese trademarks come from ancient Chinese poetry, legend, or literary works. Taking trademark “杏花村”(meaning Apricot Flower Village)for example. The trademark has the traditional social culture-loaded meaning. When Chinese consumers see the brand, they will think of a famous poem “借问酒家何处有
28、，牧童遥指杏花村。”(When I ask a shepherd boy where I can find a tavern, he points at a distantly hamlet nestling amidst apricot blossoms) History, being part of culture, have always been imposing influence upon many other cultural elements. In trademark translation, the translator should be sensitive as wel
29、l as careful enough to adapt his linguistic choices to the history of the target country. If the translated trademark does not accord with the historical element, it is very likely to hurt the feelings of that people, or even result in serious trouble, not to mention to help in the sales of the prod
30、uct. The most notorious example of all trademarks might be the “OPIUM” cologne produced by a French company. The owner of the company had ever been to China and was deeply impressed by the traditional Chinese snuff bottles which were exquisite handicrafts. He then named his product “OPIUM”, hoping t
31、hat no Chinese gentlemen could resist the temptation of this cologne just as one could not resist the temptation of opium. What was beyond his expectation was that ended up as a blunder. The word “鸦片”is already a symbol of galling shame and humiliation long since the outbreak of the Opium War. Every
32、 Chinese has a strong hatred towards opium from the bottom of his heart. Therefore, when the product first appeared in the Chinese marker, it encountered unprecedented dilemma: all Chinese consumers protested strongly against the name. They insisted that the name bad brought insult upon them. The co
33、logne offered for sale in Chinese market was finally forbidden because it also violated the Chinese trademark law. From this example, we can see how important it is for the trademark translator to adapt his linguistic choices to politics and history of the target country.3.1.2 Different Religious Cu
34、lture Religion is closely related to culture, and religious culture influence the communicative translation between different cultural systems. The qualities of translation are always limited by the ideas of translators religious beliefs. And different religious cultures bring different value belief
35、s. Because of this, the same trademarks sometimes have different even completely contrary meanings in the minds of the Chinese and the English-speaking people. For example, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism have greatly influenced the Chinese peoples thinking patterns. While Christianity has influe
36、nced the English-speaking peoples way of life. For example, in Chinese market, as people have been influenced by religious culture, people often have special feelings about these trademarks which are related to the meanings of word “老”, such as “老庙”，“老干妈”,and so on. But in the Westerners minds, “old
37、” refers to “useless” and “out-dated”. However, in western culture mainly originates from ancient Greece and Rome. And many trademarks come from myth or legend of ancient Greece and Rome, such as, “Apollo”, “Mars” and “Nike”. From the example mentioned above, we can conclude that religious culture i
38、s one of the important factors to influence translation. The differences between the Chinese religious culture and the Western religious culture make the trademark translation possible or impossible. On the other hand, as translation is the bridge between different cultures, people can learn differe
39、nt religious cultures from each other by means of trademark translation. Even people can learn from each other to widen their own religious cultures according to translation. If translators know little about religious culture, it must be difficult for them to do better translation with religious fac
40、tors. 3.2 Different Value SystemsValues are a learned organization of rules for making choices and for resolving conflicts. “These rules teach us what is useful, good, right, wrong, what to strive for, how to live our life, and even what to die for” (Samovar, Porter & Stefani, 2000:60). In the other
41、 words, the value system includes peoples thought patterns, peoples concepts of values and greatly influence peoples psychology. In one word, the value system is playing a basic role in deciding peoples behavior and thoughts. Thus, the value system of culture is a very important factor affecting tra
42、demark translation.3.2.1 Different Thought Patterns Chinese people traditionally regards “五行生克”(the Five Elementmetal, wood, water, fire and earthcomplement and overcome each other) and “阴阳消长”(Yin and Yang, the two opposing principles in nature, the former feminine and negative and the latter mascul
43、ine and positive, are inter-linked but grow and decline alternatively) as the essence. Accordingly, in general, Chinese thought pattern follows the track of a “hermeneutic circle”, which is indirect. While the western thought pattern is direct and linear (Cheng Zhongying, 1988).And Chinese people of
44、ten yearn for the past or the tradition, whereas the westerners think more about the future and the new trend.Such differences are reflected in some brand names, for instance,红豆Love Bean (shirts) suggests the yearning between the lovers in a roundabout way, and people who know the Chinese thought pa
45、ttern and traditional culture can appreciate the tender feeling, while some English brand names, such as Forget-me-no(perfume),Kiss Me(lipstick),ELLE ELLE(perfume),AMOUR AMOUR(perfume), demonstrate affections directly.3.2.2 Different Concepts of Values As we all know, China is a country with a long
46、history. Chinese people have been used to the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius which have been the main trends of Chinese cultural system. Chinese core values attach importance to home, family and collective, which advocate 父义 (father to be righteous) 母慈 (mother to be loving) 兄友(elder brother to b
47、e friendly) 弟恭 (younger brother to berespectful) 子孝 (children to be filial) 妻贤(wife to be virtuous). (左氏:文公十八年传)(转引自Ropp美国学者论中国文化). Moreover, Chinese people take great pride in their long history of tradition of respecting their ancestors who are believed to have created history and brilliant cultur
48、e. They are diligent, intelligent and experience, so their opinions and advice make a great difference to the younger generation. All of the points mentioned above are reflected in many Chinese trademarks such as阿香婆Granny AXiang(chili sauce)老爸Old Father(soybean curd),老干妈Old Nominal Mother(food produ
49、cts),好太太Virtuous Wife(clothes hanger),亲亲Parents(food products),哥倆好Brother of Good Relation(stationary and office supplies),爱妻号love for wife(washing machine).These trademarks can easily arouse an agreeable feeling and favorable echo in consumers.However, to the westerners, things are totally different. They value creativeness, progress, individualism, youthfulness, efficiency and change.3.2.3 Different Consumer PsychologyCo
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