A Cultural Study of Domestication and Foreignization in English Translation of Chinese Menus

Economic globalization has brought China into closer contact with the rest of the world. Chinese food, as an important part of Chinese culture, attracts foreigners who come to China. But in a lot of cases, when they look at the menus, they feel stunned and baffled. For the English translations of Chinese menus are often incomprehensible and misleading. However, such awareness has not led to an in-depth study on menu translation. In this paper, the author draws on theories of foreignization and domestication, and recommends foreignization as a main strategy and domestication as a supplementary choice. In conjunction with it, the author suggests a set of techniques for menu translation. It is hoped that this will contribute to the preservation and development of Chinese cuisine culture as a whole.