從中西方文化角度分析狼圖騰國外滯銷的原因

1、桂林理工大學(xué)中西方文化課程論文題目Analysing Reasons of poor sales of wolf totem in western countries from cultural perspective07英語4班趙春艷3091221915號(hào)Abstract: Every nation has its own culture and tradition, and books provide us a good way to communicate with each other. We can acquire and study another countrys culture

2、 and tradition by reading relative books. And we also can promote our culture by publicizing our nations good books. But in fact, some books which are best sellers in our own country could not be good sellers in western countries and could not playing the essential roles of culture bridges. Most of

3、foreigners can not know rich and abundant chinese culture by reading relative books. For example, wolf totem which was one of the best-selling books in china could not enjoy good publicity in western countries. While some best-selling books which were brought in China from western countries also had

4、 good markets in our country. What do reasons lie in? This paper aims at discussing this question in details from cultural point of view.Outline:一：the general introduction to wolf totem1: a brief introduction to the author of this book;2: a brief introducion to wolf totems content;3: cultures includ

5、ed in wolf totem;二：wolf totems selling situation in western countries三：the reasons why wolf totem had poor sales in western countries.1: the translation problems;2: the updated marketing concepts;1.1 the chinese peoples marketing concepts1.2 the western peoples marketing concepts3: cultural influnen

6、ce between Chinese and western books3.1 Readers different reading habits 3.2 Authors different creating thoughts一：A general introduction to wolf totem1: the author of this bookJiang Rong, the author of this book, was born in Beijing in 1946. He came to Inner Mongolia in 1967 and lived there for near

7、ly eleven years. He dig too wolfs den, raised a small wolf, had witnessed countless battles happened among wolves and people, wolves and horses. the quality of the wolf and peoples worship to wolves attract ed Jiang Rong. finally he spent almost six years writing the novel Wolf Totem . 2: A brief in

8、troducion to Wolf Totems content:Wolf Totem is the first book that makes wolf as the main object description in a whole book.It is based on the authors own personal experience, leading readers to a real and vivid wolfs world. Wolf Totem is a novel about the experiences of a young student named Chen

9、Zhen in his 20s from Beijing to the countryside of Inner Mongolia in 1967, at the time of Chinas Cultural Revolution. In this book, it compares the culture of the ethnic Mongolian nomads and the Han Chinese farmers who live in different places, praising the freedom, independence, respect, unyielding

10、 before hardship, teamwork and competition of the ethnic Mongolian nomads and criticising the autocratic, sheeplike nature of Han Chinese farmers. 3: cultures included in wolf totem; The grassland is the main body of culture and Chinese culture - a culture verydifferent from the Central Plains .This

11、 author compares Grassland culture with chinese traditional Framing culture, and he even conducted a reunderstanding and rethink to the modern civilization and human beings development. To a certain degree of subversion, this novel also promote people to reflect on the mainstream culture in modern t

12、imes. In this book, the old generation, representatives of the Mongolian people, show readers the essence of the grassland culture, and these essence are no inferior to the modern ecological concepts and thoughts.二：wolf totems selling situation in western countries Wolf Totem had strong sales after

13、its release, selling 50,000 copies in two weeks; it had sold over four million copies in China in March,2006, and had also been broadcast in audiobook format in twelve parts during prime time on China Radio International. While when it was brought in western countries, its sales situation was not op

14、timistic. Many foreigners did not know it and showed no interests in it which was a best-selling books in China.三：the reasons why wolf totem had poor sales in western countries.1. the translation problemsWhen introducing a chinese literatural books into foreign countries, the first difficulty is the

15、 translation. Some times the bad translation has made some jokes, for example, Journey to the West, is firstly translated into Monkey, monkey King, Adventures of Monkey, monkeys learn in mind, monkeys and pigs, etc. Zhang Yiwu, deputy director of Cultural Resources Research Center of Peking Universi

16、ty, believes that translation is, indeed, affect Chinas book overseas sales. China has a long history and rich civilization. Many of the historical evolution has very complex vocabulary, it is very difficult to translate these cultural words correctly and elegantly.The translator of the Wolf Totems

17、English version is Howard Goldblatt, his Chinese name is 葛浩文，which is a very famous American translator. He enjoy a very high status as English translator of Chinese literature in the world. Howard Goldblatt is a excellent ChineseEnglish translator and the English version of Wolf Totem has a compact

18、 content and is good originized, but when he translating Wolf Totem, considerating the reason of the space and length of Wolf Totems English version, he remove some extracts from chinese traditional history books. This action resulted in some critisms from experts and foreign readers. And his action

19、 of deleting references to chinese history books at the very beginning of every chapter, made foreigners have more difficulties to understand this novel and could not feel chinese cultural features better. The good news was that Howard Goldblatt expressed that he will try his best to add these cultu

20、ral extracts and words on the English versions of Wolf Totem in future.There are many extracts from chinese traditional history books, and these extracts which have typical chinese cultural features are very difficult to translate. Even Howard Goldblatt is a very professional and great translater, a

21、fter all he is not a chinese native, so sometimes it is very difficult for him to understand some subtle meanings of typical chinese cultural words.In my opinion, the best way to solve translation problem is to cultivate more and more translator who have good command of both English and Chinese. Mak

22、ing authors have good command of both English and Chinese is not a easy thing, after all not everyone is“ Lin Yutang ”，“Qian Zhongshu”, the kind of people who can use both English and Chinese freely.2.the updated marketing concepts;1.1 the chinese peoples marketing concepts In our chinese traditiona

23、l cultural concepts, we always think that “good wine needs no bush”, so we do not pay so much attention to ways and strategies how to promote good products. Although nowadays more and more chinese people have realized the benefits of marketing, we still have a lot of things to learn. Our marketing c

24、onceprs are still updated and we must continue to make efforts on marketing.According to some news reports, the author of Wolf Totem, refused to participate in any marketing and publicity activities. He also refused to attend to any awards ceremenies. Wolf Totem had received many praises more than t

25、en literary prizes after its releases, and it was also the winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize. But Jiang Rong did not appear at these awards ceremonies. In his mind, he always think that a real author should be low-key and have a full commitment to works. All of these are chinese traditional tho

26、ughts of men of letters. In their opinion, there is not many relations between writing books and promoting these books and they think men of letters should not have stained with money or other things which they think will distract their mind from creating more great works.1.2 the western peoples mar

27、keting conceptsCompared to the poor sales of Wolf Totem in western countries, the western works perfomed very well in chinese market. For example, Harry Potter had created record sales in China. Its marketing strategy and way had plaied great contrubution to its success. As Writers Publishing House

28、Senior Editor Wang Baosheng said: “book marketing is a huge industrial chain, including film and television, a variety of related arts and crafts, etc., can be said that from the every aspect of life for ordinary people to influence the awareness and understanding of a work. such as Harry Potter”, i

29、ts first film was a success in China, and that made the novel best seller in China. And the western authors also have a good market awareness and in their opinions, it is very normal to promote their books in person. And they also think their works deserve to be concerned by the public. The creation

30、 of works is not contrary to the gaining of money.3. cultural differences and influnence3.1 different reading habit Chinese readers and foreign readers have different reading habits. In western countries, if foreign readers regard the background of these stories is not very clear, these readers are unlikely to buy these books. And these foreign readers tend to read b