Cultural Analysis of the English Version of Folding Beijing from Eco-Translatology

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Introduction
"As a research paradigm of translation from an ecological perspective, ecological translation is based on the isomorphic metaphor of translation ecology and natural ecology, and takes ecological holism as the concept" (Hu, 2013, p. 238). It is an interdisciplinary study that systematically explores the ecology of translation, text ecology and "translation community" ecology, as well as their interactions and relationships.
Translation is to introduce source language into target language and the understanding of the translator for the culture has a direct effect on culture transmission. Words with Chinese characteristics has a long history and it is closely connected with the broad and profound Chinese culture. The translator must not only shoulder the responsibility to deliver information of original text, but also should spread Chinese culture through translation.
"The transition of adaptive selection of cultural dimension requires the translator to pay attention to the transmission and interpretation of different culture connotation in the translation process" (Hu, 2013, p. 240). The translator need to be aware of the differences in the nature and content of the culture in source language and the target language, avoiding misinterpreting of the original text from the perspective of the target language. The entire cultural system in source language matters too. Being loyal to both language form and connotation makes a good translation. By linguistic dimension, the translator could get the right form. By cultural dimension, Western readers could have the access to understand the way of thinking in traditional Chinese culture. Only in this way can Western readers understand the cultural connotation and profound meaning behind the novel. Therefore, the translator must navigate in the sea of words to find the corresponding expression in the target language. In order to adapt to the cultural dimension, the translatator of Folding Beijing accurately conveys the literal meaning of the original text, and also pays attention to the cultural background and cultural connotation of the original text to precisely reveal the meaning of the original text.
Language is not only confined to a tool of communication and thinking, but also a carrier of culture. Different regions may share same culture but there still exist some differences. These differences have brought diversity and richness for global culture but caused a large amount of translation difficulties indeed. The cultural dimension concentrates more on culture behind the two languages, and what is the best way to make translation in line with the target language.

Folding Beijing and Its Translator
Folding Beijing was written by Hao Jingfang who is a author of novels and essays, PhD in economics from Tsinghua University, founder of Tong Xing Academy. In 2018, Hao Jingfang won the novella Nomination Award of the Third Chinese Young Writers Award and the Best Novella Award and was named "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum.
In the novel, Beijing is divided into three spaces according to social class in the future. Lao Dao, a garbage worker living in the third space, risks his life to shuttle between the three spaces to deliver messages so as to make money to support his adopted daughter. In this process, he saw the young women in the upper class who married into a rich family and played with the young college students in the middle class who changed their fate by reading books. He was also rescued by the kind people who struggled from the third space to the first space. After undergoing hardships, he finally returned to the third space.
Ken Liu was born in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China. His family came to the United States when he was eight. He developed an interest in reading and writing. By the time he was eight years old, he had written his first scientific work. This novel can be regarded as the beginning of his science fiction career. As he went to Harvard University, he majored in English literature and minored in computer science in his spare time. He works as a litigation consultant to free up time, but he never lost sight of his passion for writing. Ken Liu's educational background shows that he is a quick learner with expertise in multiple subjects, which is one of his strengths as a translator. When he was a child, he showed his ability to speak. He is an English literature major at Harvard University. In terms of translation, he is a proficient bilingual who is familiar with the linguistic and cultural background of two different languages. At the same time, Ken Liu, who grew up in the United States, understands the tastes of English readers. He also used his legal skills and experience to grasp the complexities of science fiction, which gave him a solid foundation for understanding the original text.
The novel is based on the background of Beijing, the central city of China, and unfolds a series of science fiction. Beijing is also an ancient city with strong Chinese culture, and words with Chinese characteristics inevitably appear in the novel. There are a large number of cultural information in the novel, including idioms, folk adage and so on. It is almost impossible for Western readers who are not familiar with Chinese history to fully understand the rich culturally loaded information, which makes the task of the translator clear. They need to be in the ecological environment where the text exists, and then makes certain adaptive choices to the translation ecological environment, making a reader-friendly translation.

An Interpretation of the Eco-Translatology
Ecological translatology refers to the translation theory using the principles and methods of ecology, so it is an interdisciplinary theory between ecology and translatology. The emergence of ecological translatology is closely related to the rise of the environmental movement and ecologism. After the 1960s, many academic documents and international documents related to environmental issues appeared, which shows that human beings gradually realize the urgency of protecting the environment and maintaining the ecology. Ecological translatology puts translation theory in the context of natural ecosystem and studies the interrelation and transformation between translation activities, human language, human society, human culture, human itself and natural ecosystem. Ecological translation studies adopt the holistic and systematic view of ecology, and discusses translation studies and its external environment, namely translation ecosystem, from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Translation ecosystem is the "existence background" of translation studies, which inevitably requires translation studies to be discussed in combination with more disciplinary methods of different nature. For example, the theoretical methods of linguistics, semiotics, sociology, culturology, anthropology and other disciplines are applied to translation studies.
Different from Western translation studies which incorporate linguistics and cultural context into the field of translation studies, ecological translation studies is a system of translation studies which combines Western ecologism and Eastern ecological wisdom to build a holistic and comprehensive view. In addition, since "ecology" itself is a topic of great concern in the Western society, the international development of ecological translation studies is based on China's local independent innovation while achieving international development.
When it is applying to analyze the English translation, this theory fouses on how translator do in this prosess rather than how the translator should do and have done.

An Analysis of English Version of Foling Beijing from Cluture Dimension
Words with Chinese characteristics has a long history and it is closely connected with the broad and profound Chinese culture. The translator must not only shoulder the responsibility to deliver information of original text, but also should spread Chinese culture through translation.
Here the paper will discuss the English translation from cultural dimension from following aspects and they are material culture, ecological culture, and language and social culture.

Material Culture
"The material culture in the cultural dimension refers to the material products that can satisfy the needs of the people and the cultural implication it represents" (Sun, 2021). Material culture is the most widely involved in our daily life. It includes our usual food, clothing, housing, and transportation. However, the translation of material culture is often relatively difficult because of different languages. The meaning represented in the culture may be different, which requires the translator to adapt to the translation ecological environment of the source language and choose the appropriate translation content.
Food is an important part of culture. China is a country that attaches great importance to food culture. The names of food are connected with historical development and regional differences. These subtle factors are extremely difficult to deal with in the process of English translation. It is necessary to consider not only cultural preservation, but also reception and information of the culture. Folding Beijing involves a lot of Chinese food names, which is not only a challege for the translator, but also reflects his cultural translation concept, which is worthy of our study.
ST: 霓虹灯亮了，商铺顶端闪烁的小灯打出新疆大枣、东北拉皮、上海烤麸和湖南腊肉。(郝景芳, 2021, p. 7) TT: The neon lights came on. Tiny flashing LEDs on top of the shops formed into characters advertising jujubes from Xinjiang, lapi noodles from Northeast China, bran dough from Shanghai, and cured meats from Hunan." (Liu, 2018, p. 218) Lao Dao crossed the different space and came to the first space for the mission. When the space changes, various signboards of street shops make him dazzling. These signs are something that Lao Dao has never seen before. Living at the bottom of society, he has never been reluctant to buy a snack for himself. And these extremely Chinese-flavored snack names are also strange to Western readers. There have been many studies in the translation industry on the translation of the names of national specialties. "To achieve equivalence in translation, zero translation and transliteration has long been considered the best translation method, which allows words to retain their original meaning without distorting the culture of the source language" (Liu, 2017). When translating the name of the dish, it reflects the Chinese characteristics behind it, such as origin, allusions, legends, fables, etc., they are also some principles to pay attention to.
When dealing with these words, Ken Liu first adopted the method of transliteration, such as "拉皮" translated as "Lapi", highlighting the cooking method of the ingredients. And "腊肉" was translated as "cured meats".The origin of things is released to prevent missing translations. The combination of literal translation and transliteration is faithful to the original text, which not only shows the author's respect for culture, but also is of great help for Western readers to read authentic Chinese-style science fiction novels. From the novel, the reader can understand the country's food culture.
The same dish name is translated as follows: ST: "人家那儿一盘回锅肉，就三百四。"小李说, "三百四!一盘水煮牛肉四百二呢。"(郝景芳, 2021, p. 2) TT: Li ignored him "Three hundred and forty yuan!" said Li. "You hear that? Three forty! For twice-cooked pork! And for boiled beef? Four hundred and twenty!" (Liu, 2018, p. 211) "回锅肉" and "水煮牛肉" are also very famous dishes in China. As Ken Liu translates these two words in English, he focuses on the cooking process as the translation purpose. The characteristic of "回锅肉" is that it is twice-cooked and stir-fried, while "水煮肉" means to cook beef. For the translation of the names of these two Chinese specialties, in addition to the literal translation, the characteristics of the two dishes were also highlighted. Chinese food names are very particular, so the quality of translation greatly affects Western readers' views on Chinese cuisine. According to the origin of the Chinese names of these two dishes, Ken Liu faithfully translated them into English, which is also convenient for Western readers to understand the reasons for the names of Chinese dishes and the cooking methods of the dishes.
ST: 食客围着塑料桌子，埋头在酸辣粉的热气腾腾中，饿虎扑食一般，白色蒸汽遮住了脸。油炸的香味 弥漫。货摊上的酸枣和核桃堆成山，腊肉在头顶摇摆。(郝景芳, 2021, p. 1) TT: Customers packed the plastic tables at the food hawker stalls which were immersed in the aroma of frying oil.They ate heartily with their faces buried in bowls of hot and sour rice noodles, their heads hidden by clouds of white steam Other stands featured mountains of jujubes and walnuts, and hunks of cured meat swung overhead. (Liu, 2018, p. 210) "酸辣粉", "酸枣", and "腊肉" are also Chinese specialty snacks. For these three Chinese characteristics, in terms of vocabulary translation, Ken Liu chooses to focus on descriptive translation based on the appearance and taste of food. This translation method not only allows the target language readers to have an objective understanding of Chinese cuisine, but also enables the translators to have an objective understanding of Chinese cuisine. The description imagines of taste and taste of food, which can be called as having the translation effect of "color and aroma".
In a word, for the Chinese specialties in the above novels, especially the flavor snacks, translators all adopt transliteration strategies and direct translation strategies, rather than adding or supplementing translation. "Transliteration is a form of literal translation, which can achieve cultural retention of proper nouns to the greatest extent" (Wang, 2017). Imagine that if supplementary translation or in-text annotations are made here, it will be difficult to explain clearly. At the same time, the appearance of transliterated food names in science fiction adds to the mysterious and exotic quality of the novel itself. This processing method is a transitional stage from literal translation to free translation. Among them, the translation of "lapnoodles" is a combination of transliteration and free translation; the translation of "bacon" is a translation method that highlights the characteristics of food and weakens the processing process. It can be seen that translators have trade-offs in the process of translating information.
ST: "没有吃席的命啊。"老葛笑道, "你等着吧，待会儿我给你弄点吃的回来。" (郝景芳, 2021, p. 25) TT: "I guess you're not fated to enjoy the banquet." LaoGe laughed. "Just wait here. I'll get you some food later." (Liu, 2018, p. 235) The term "吃席" has a history of more than 600 years since the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty. It is a word with a great historical and traditional color of China. "吃席" is the village which has a wedding or a funeral , the villagers will consciously go to the home to pay money, and then eat dinner in the home. Until the modern society, the custom of "eating a banquet" still exists in the rural areas of China, while most of the traditional "eating a banquet" has been canceled in the urban life. The word "banquet" means "宴会". It is used for a formal gathering. In this context, the translator uses the word "banquet", which is more in line with the grand banquet scene in the third space at that time. It will not cause Western readers' misunderstanding，and the translator's grasp of the whole context and scene is in place.

Ecological Culture
"Ecological cultural terms include words related to animals, plants and the natural environment, and refer to the living state of all living things in the natural environment." (Newmark, 1988) For cultural differences, the same animal may have different meaings between Weatern culture and Eastern culture. The translators need to take them into consideration and selects approporate translation method. Here are some examples.
Here some animal images are discussed.
ST: 血液复苏的小腿开始刺痒疼痛，如百爪挠心，几次让他摔倒，疼得无法忍受。(郝景芳, 2021, p. 30) TT: As circulation returned to the numb leg, his calf itched and ached as if he was being bitten by thousands of ants. Several times, he almost fell. (Liu, 2018, p. 252) The folding of the city stopped unexpectedly, and Lao Dao, the protagonist who was eager to return, accidentally stuck his calf in the soil. Here, he used "hundred claws to scratch his heart" to describe his intricate mood that he endures the great pain but struggles to escape back to the third space. Many animals have different meanings in English and Chinese. Here, Ken Liu takes the different images of animals in Chinese and Western culture into consideration carefully. "百爪挠心" is a Chinese idiom, which means that it is like giving birth to twenty-five little mice. -Hundred claws scratch the heart, which now mostly refers to inner panic of people. The Black Death that raged in the Middle Ages made Westerners afraid when they talk about mice, and if the literal translation is used, it will make the readers of the target language deeply uncomfortable. Ken Liu is familiar with ant and it symbolizes wisdom and unity in Western culture, and many idioms and proverbs in English are ells.ccsenet.org English Language and Literature Studies Vol. 13, No. 2;2023 derived from ants. Here, the translator chooses the naturalization interpretation method to adapt to the readers' cultural preferences and aesthetic tastes, and makes them much easier to grap their meanings.
ST: 食客围着塑料桌子，埋头在酸辣粉的热气腾腾中，饿狼扑食一般。 (郝景芳, 2021, p. 1) TT: Customers packed the plastic tables at the food hawker stalls, which were immersed in the aroma of frying oil. They ate heartily with their faces buried in bowls of hot and sour rice noodles，their heads hidden by clouds of white steam. (Liu, 2018, p. 210) It can be seen that the word "饿狼扑食" in the original text has not been translated in the translation. This is actually the translator's intention to take the differences between Chinese and Western tiger cultures into consideration. In China, tigers are regarded as the most ferocious beasts on land, often it is a symbol of power and strength. There are many expressions of praise that contain tigers in Chinese, such as "living dragons and living tigers", "hidden dragons and crouching tigers", "tigers on dragon plates", etc. The status of tigers is even comparable to the image of dragon. On the contrary, Western culture advocates lions instead of the tigers, and sometimes a tiger even has a certain derogatory color. For example, in English, "a tiger cannot change his strips" means that old habits cannot be changed easily, and "blind tiger" means illegal alcohol sales. The translation is to avoid the terrible associations that Western readers will have when they see the image of the tiger.

Language and Social Culture
Language and culture include a lot, generally including the culture formed in our daily life, such as idioms, allusions, and idioms in Chinese, which belongs to language and culture. Language and culture involve a wide range of aspects, so it is the most difficult to translate. In the process of translating language and culture, translators must comprehensively combine the translation ecological environment of the source language, and cannot blindly pursue literal translation, because the meaning of a word or sentence in different contexts is very different. In the same way, this requires the translator to take all-round consideration.
"Social culture are related to the interpersonal communication, life style and social relations, which are the products of sociocultural context" (Sun, 2018). Due to the difference of cultural presupposition and shared knowledge, Chinese people in high context often attach importance to opinions in communication and show more euphemism in communication. Different countries and ethnic groups are also affected by their social customs and culture in dialogue and communication, which also brings difficulties to the translator's translation.

Proverbs and Idioms
In China, there are a lot of proverbs and idioms which is difficult for Western readers to understand them.
SL: 这不过是冒违规的大不韪，只要路径和方法对，被抓住的几率并不大。(郝景芳, 2021, p. 4) TT: Sure， it was illegal， but no one would be harmed， and as long as he followed the right route and method, the probability of being caught wasn't great. (Liu, 2018, p. 215) The idiom "大不韪" refers to doing bad things regardless of the condemnation of public opinion. Here it is the plot that Lao Dao explained the feasibility of going to the first space to others, but it is illegal to cross the space and there is strict hierarchy in the folded urban space. "No one would be harmed" presents the invisible logic in the context, that is, it is Lao Dao's only motive to make money to send his daughter to school, and other aspects are insignificant.
The symbols and images used in Chinese and English rhetorical devices are not the same. Whether to replace the original rhetorical structure and rhetorical image requires careful consideration by the translator.
ST: ……平稳迅速，保持并肩，从远处看上去，或许会以为老刀脚踩风火轮。(郝景芳, 2021, p. 20) TT: Their move-ments were so steady, so smooth, so synchro-nized, that from a distance, it appeared as if LaoDao was skating along on a pair of rollerblades, like Nezha riding on his Wind Fire Wheels. (Liu, 2018, p. 237) Here is the scene where Lao Dao broke into the first space and was accidentally caught by the robot police. The wind fire wheel is originally considered as a magic weapon of Nezha in ancient Chinese myths and legends.
In the original text, the rhetorical device of metaphor is used, and the scene of Lao Dao being taken away by a robot is likened to "脚踩风火轮". But for foreign readers, this term is very abrupt, and there is no way to know its origin. The story of Ne Zha, well-known to Chinese readers, has become a classic, and it will resonate with readers even though it is not mentioned in the original text. This culture-loaded word contains a lot of hidden content, and the translator must explain the context clearly, otherwise confusion and misunderstanding will be caused. The translator adopts the method of explanation. At first, the author uses "as if" to describe the action state of the old knife, and then uses "like Nezha" to restore the story allusions. But if readers want to fully understand the allusions, they also need to consult the image of Nezha and the entire storyline. We can know from ancient myth, it was bestowed by the Taiyi and contains the potential of wind and fire, and can be used as a flying tool under both feet. The original intention of original author's was to describe the rapidity of the robot police action to the readers. For the purpose of culture communications, the translator Ken Liu added the "roller skates" which is familiar to the readers of the target language.
The translator did not replace Nezha with a character familiar to foreign readers, which showed the translator's persistence and perseverance. He hoped that readers could understand medieval folk customs and allusions through the Chinese elements in the novel. From the perspective of cultural dimension, it can avoid cluture misleading caused by information asymmetry of readers, while retaining the aesthetic connotation of myths and legends. As a result, the spread of culture is realized successfully.
ST: 两旁狼吞虎咽的饥饿少年围绕着他。(郝景芳, 2021, p. 2) TT: A group of hungry teenagers squatted around him, devouring their food. (Liu, 2018, p. 211) The translation seems to have word order adjustment, which is still a literal translation, but not a machine translation. It is the literal translation of machinery, but the literal translation after the information has been reorganized, which not only conveys the information of original text but also makes the language more suitable for the expression habits of the translated language.
It is worth noting that the "狼吞虎咽" in the original text does not exist in English. Corresponding words, in Chinese, we use figurative expressions, while in English, we use abstract concepts. The use of the word "devour" is a domestication strategy, which belongs to the category of free translation.
In the translation of this sentence, there is both literal translation and free translation. Because of the particularity of the text, the translator uses above translation methods. The two translation concepts are integrated with each other, and they go hand in hand.

Dialect Culture
Different areas differ in their dialect. In this novel, there are many dialects of Beijing. And how the translator deals with it will affect ditectly the readers' understanding of the novel. And here are some eaxmples.
ST: 如果只看这副模样，不知道他年轻时的样子，会以为他只是个胸无大志只知道吃喝的怂包。 (郝景芳, 2021, p. 3) TT: Looking at him now，one might get the impression that he was a loser whose only am-bition in a life was a full belly. (Liu, 2018, p. 212) In Chinese culture, "胸无大志" is a proverb. And "怂包" is a Beijing dialect, which has a derogatory color and ridicules people for being cowardly and timid. These two words obviously contain Chinese culture and are in line with the daily expressions of Beijingers, but there is no corresponding expression in English. Therefore, to convey the meaning of the original text clearly, the translator must use a domestication strategy, describing the image as "a loser whose only ambition in a life was a full belly". By converting the translation into an expression familiar to the intended readers, the image of Peng Li, a character in the novel, comes to the readers.
SL: 机器人有时候还是不如人靠谱，它们认死理儿。 (郝景芳, 2021, p. 22) TT: I don't trust robots for things like this. Sometimes they don't know how to be flexible. (Liu, 2018, p. 241) Here is the plot that Lao Ge complained to Lao Dao about the disadvantages of artificial intelligence. Among them, "靠谱" and "认死理儿" are common expressions in the north of China. The translator creatively changes "靠谱" into "reliable" on the basis of the premise of ensuring the balance of communication ecology. It is translated as "trust", which is concise and easy to understand, while "认死理儿" is translated into "flexible" to get rid of the shackles of textual form.
ST: 你以为你那点小猫腻我们不知道?我们上班时你全把空调关了，最后你这按电费交钱，我们这给你白 交供暖费，你蒙谁啊你!每天下班回来这屋里冷得跟冰一样，你以为我们新来的好欺负吗?" (郝景芳, 2021, p. 31) TT: "Do you think we are going to be fooled by such a basic trick? When were at work, you turn off the heat. Then you charge us for the electricity we haven't been using so you can keep the extra for yourself. Do you think we were born yesterday? (Liu, 2018, pp. 253−254) "猫腻" and "蒙" are both words in Beijing dialect. In Folding Beijing, in order to reflect the authenticity of the place where the story takes place in the novel, the author makes the characters' language very dialectic. The translator mostly uses the free translation method to deal with the situation when the method finds just the corresponding vocabulary for translation. Liu Yu Kun also chose this way. He interprets "猫腻" as "low-level tricks", and he doesn't use the word "蒙", but it is replaced by a rhetorical question with a similar meaning. The literal translation is "你以为我们才刚出生呢?" And the implied meaning is "你以为我们还小，还好骗吗?". The advantage of this kind of indirect translation is that it avoids improvisation, which makes people unbelievable, but takes the expression of text as the main purpose, so that readers have the reading environment in the source language.
ST: 坑人啊。得找老板退钱!" (郝景芳, 2021, p. 2) TT: "We need to get our money back from the vendor!" (Liu, 2018, p. 211) ST: "什么玩意?这么贵。"小丁捂着腮帮子咕哝道。(郝景芳, 2021, p. 2) TT: "How could the prices be so expensive?" Ding mumbled as he clutched his check. (Liu, 2018, p. 211) The above two examples are the dialogues between the little characters Xiao Ding and Xiao Li in the novel. These two sentences have local characteristics and are in line with the characteristics of conversations between the streets and alleys of Beijing's small citizens. Saying "you can only understand what you can't tell". When translating, the translator did not directly translate the meaning of these exclamatory words, but directly ignored and expressed the central meaning of the sentence. His approach may be due to the fact that Western readers cannot really understand these special words in Chinese, and they prefer the expression of direct meaning, just as Chinese people have difficulty understanding some mantras of Westerners. "腮帮子" is one of the ten expressions of "脸颊" in northern China. Similar dialect expressions have local characteristics in the original work, but the translator considered that the translated language is too difficult for readers to understand, so it was deleted. Here, Liu Yuxing also skips the dialect translation and directly translates it into "check" and it is easy for foreigners to understand, which is more intuitive and concise.
From the above examples, it can be seen that for the cross-cultural related words in Folding Beijing, Ken Liu generally adopts the literal translation method to translate the literal meaning and add appropriate annotations. For the unique expressions in Chinese culture, Liu Yuxing chooses to transform them into words or sentences in English and Chinese expressions, which is not restricted to form, but mainly conveys meaning. For some special cases, such as the function words expressing emotion such as interjections in Chinese dialects, the translator chooses to ignore the meaning of the central sentence and directly translate the meaning of the central sentence, so as to avoid the confusion of readers caused by cultural differences. However, no matter what translation strategies the translator adopts, the most important one is that the translator pays his efforts to deliver Chinese culture and achieves the balance between the two languages.

Conclusion
Ecological translation theory has opened a new way for the dissemination of excellent culture and translation of literary works. The diverse dimensions of ecological translation theory provide firm support for translating unique Chinese cluture, which not only requires translators to fill up cultural gap, but also enhances the affectional tie with Western readers.
By analyzing the English translation from cultural dimension, this paper covers material culture, ecological culture and language and social culture. When dealing with the translation, the translator mainly uses literal translation, tranliteration and adds annotations to convey Chinese culture connation, which is connected with his blingual background and many translators lack of this advantange. During the process of translation, the author makes the translation conform to the recongnition of Western readers. At the same time, the translator didn't damage the original text ecology, thus balancing text tecnology and traget readers. This balance is very important and many translators can't achieve this effect.
To a certain degree, it represents cultural confidence. This paper hopes to help translators to pay attention to the whole cultural ecology when translating and promote Chinese literary works to go abroad.