Error Analysis on the English Translation of Introductory Texts in Guangzhou Scenic Spots from the Perspective of Eco ‐ translatology

: As one of the important contents of tourism text, scenic spot introductory text is an important means to promote scenic spot. By providing basic information to tourists, it can deeper tourists’ understanding of the beauty and significance of the scenic spots, thus making scenic spots play greater social, economic and cultural benefits. The quality of its English translation is related to the language environment of the scenic area, its attraction to foreign tourists and the spread of Chinese culture. Nonetheless, some introductory texts in Guangzhou are translated in English in a poor quality, and many problems can be found. This research will explain the core concepts of Eco-translatology, summarize the research results and their guiding significance for the English translation of introductory texts in scenic spots. Consisting of five parts, this thesis gives a short introduction at the very beginning. Then, an overview of Eco-translatology is given in the second part. In the third part, problems in respect of English transaction are analyzed briefly, with the discussion of their respective causes. The fourth part focuses on the application of Eco-translatology in introductory texts, including standardization, diction, amplification, omission and restructuring. The last part is conclusion.


Introduction
As economy further develops towards globalization, China is opening wider and wider to the other countries with each passing day. China has more frequent exchanges with other countries, surrounding countries in particular, in such aspects as economy, trade and culture. Consequently, a growing number of foreigners are attracted to visit China. This kind of tourism not only means sightseeing but also to know China's brilliant history and profound cultures. This makes the translation of tourist attractions particularly important. The quality and level of translation directly influence the emotional experience of tourists and their impression of China. Considering the situations above, we do have the need to probe into the English translation of introductory texts based on Eco-translatology.
This thesis is composed based on Eco-translatology, with the aim to analyze the introductory texts for scenic spots in Guangzhou in a comprehensive and thorough manner, thereby reducing, and even, preventing translation errors.

An overview on Eco-translatology
Eco-translatology was proposed by Professor Hu Gengshen in 2001. In the study of Eco-translatology, a group of scholars and experts, represented by Hu Gengshen, have made indefatigable research and exploration and have achieved fruitful results. Eco-translatology is able to be taken as a study of translation based on ecological approaches or a study of translation from the angle of ecology. Put it another way, integrity of the translation ecosystem is the center in Eco-translatology studies which describe and explain the property, procedure, criteria, principles and methods of translation and translation phenomena in a new mode, i.e. narrative mode, of Eco-translatology. (Hu Gengshen, 11)

The definition of Eco-translatology
On the basis of isomorphic metaphor of translation and natural ecology, Eco-translatology is a research method that looks at translation from an ecological perspective. Based on ecological wisdom of easterners, the ecological translation research method, on the basis of adaptation and selection theory, focuses on the concept of ecological holism and probes into the translation ecology, text ecology and translation community ecology and the relationship and interactions among the three aspects in a systematic manner. The translator will engage himself in describing, in a wellrounded manner, the translation ecology and ontology of translation theory based on ecology.

The origin and development of Ecotranslatology
Many ideas are put forward under the profound background of the times and the influence of social trends of thought. Under the guidance of modern society and academic development, Eco-translatology has gradually emerged and developed.
In the first place, Eco-translatology presented the changes in social civilization in translation studies. Human beings witnessed the evolvement of society to ecological civilization from industrial civilization starting from the mid-20th century. When it came to 1972 when the famous declaration on human environment was released to the public by the UN, natural environmental protection became a major concern of all human beings. China especially gave more concern to matters concerning ecological environment, evidenced by the sustained development and scientific outlook on development proposed in succession by Chinese leaders. Against such a background, scholars engaging in translation studies and other studies in social sciences began to pay heed to ecological dimension.
Secondly, it's the unavoidable result of the transformation of modern philosophy. Since the 20th century, there has been transformation from division between subject and object to intersubjectivity and from the center to holistic concept in the field of thought and philosophy. Up to 1960s, there appeared the notable French philosopher Jacques Derrida who came up with the idea that the center was likely to appear both inside and outside (Derrida, 538). That is to say, there is absolute center. Till 1970s, Allen, an ecological philosopher, integrated ecology with ethics and philosophy, and raised the theory of Deep Ecology under which there are several crucial concepts in respect of ecological philosophy, including ecological self, ecological equality and ecological symbiosis (Naess, 133). Later, David Griffin, an American ecological philosopher, and others developed it. From the process above, it is known that in contemporary philosophy, epistemology and humancentered view were gradually replaced by ontology holistic view of ecology. Due to the philosophical turn, translation studies began to focus on translation activities from the viewpoint of translation ecology in a well-rounded manner. That is where the research path of ecological translation studies arises from.
The evolvement of ecology into a scientific way of thinking has granted a deeper meaning to ecology. In academic world, environmentalism is no longer merely a term in the field of geography, science and social sciences. Instead, it has penetrated into the field of humanity. In this context, many social sciences have begun to adopt ecological approach to research. Translatology has a strong interdisciplinary nature, and the enlightenment and desire for exploration brought by the above development situation have also become a driving force in the early research of Eco-translatology.
It has been ten years since the year when Eco-translatology was first proposed. Eco-translatology began to explore in 2001, established its foundation in 2003, advocated its integration in 2006 and expanded in 2009. Up to now, scholars all over the world accepted it as not only a fact but also an objective existence, and put more emphasis on it. Currently, with a development process lasting for ten years, Eco-translatology studies are developed at three stages, specifically, integrated advocacy, theories establishment and development, and creativity extension. For the emergence and development of Eco-translatology, there are Chinese factors as well as global factors; not only internal factors, but also external factors; not only human factors, but also objective factors. At the same time, the origin and development of Ecotranslatology is also a kind of social, cultural and academic needs, which needs further development in the field of translation learning. That is the reason why Eco-translatology was developed when the new century began.

The theoretical bases of Eco-translatology
Eco-translatology has three theoretical bases. The first is ecological holism. Taking the overall benefit of ecosystem rather than benefit of humanity as the highest value is the core idea of ecological holism, and the ultimate standard of lifestyle of human beings, progress in science and technology as well as economic and social development lies in whether to keep and protect integrity, stability, sustainability, balance and harmony of ecosystem.
The second is oriental ecological wisdom, mainly refers to China, with Chinese ecological wisdom as the core. The classic ecological wisdom in Chinese traditional culture is an important theoretical fulcrum of Eco-translatology. These ecological wisdoms are characterized by "Heaven and Man", "The Doctrine of the Mean", "People-oriented" and "Integrated Integration", which contain rich philosophies and speculations. This is a sort of wisdom for life and ecology of Chinese.
The third is adaptation and selection theory. Under the theory, translation process is basically referred to as a process for translators to adapt to translational ecological environment under the circumstance in which both original text and translators' translation of ecological environment are taken as typical elements. The translation behavior in this translation process is dominated by the translator.

Analysis of Problems in Translation of Introductory Texts in Guangzhou Scenic Spots
This thesis takes the introductory text of Guangzhou tourist scenic spot as the original material and the author study it from the perspective of Eco-translatology. The data of this study are from field investigation and photography. At the same time, the author also consulted relevant materials of scenic spots, such as tickets and promotional materials. It presents the real particulars about English translation of introductory texts in relation to scenic spots in Guangzhou. Taking the introductory text of scenic spots as the object, the author will point out the existing problems and their causes from the perspective of Eco-translatology, so as to provide the basis for further solving the problems.

Existing problems
Under Eco-translatology, translation method is taken as the transformation of language among three dimensions, i.e. linguistic dimension, cultural dimension and communicative dimension. However, during translation, taking into account paragraphs in the text and the entire text, we usually see the translation of a single dimension. When a text is translated, there involves not only language conversion, but also cultural contents, communicative purpose, mental suggestion and pursuit of multiple dimensions in respect of aesthetics. Particularly, translators should make efforts to balance the ecology of source language and the ecology of target language, and put emphasis on the integrated and interrelated elements of small, medium and large ecological translation environment. Therefore, the thesis mainly analyzes the existing problems of the introductory texts of Guangzhou scenic spots from the three-dimensional perspectives of Ecotranslatology.

Transformation errors in linguistic dimension
Language dimension is transformed based on and for the purpose of correct translation. Nonetheless, there are some errors in Guangzhou scenic spots introductory texts. It destroys the ecological environment of the target language.
Transliteration runs through the whole text, and the most prominent "沙面" is transliterated into "Shamian". It not only fails to convey the unique charm of Shameen Island to foreign tourists, but also reflects the translator's limited knowledge. Tracing its history, the nineteenth century map has translated the sand into the Shameen Island. Translator should take the initiative to consult literature material. There are many English words for "街", such as road, the way from A to B, street, an east-west way in a city(42nd street in Manhattan, New York, USA), avenue, a path with tall dense trees planted on either side (Champs elysees, Paris) , etc. Therefore, "沙面 大街" should be translated into "Shameen Street".
(2) Non-corresponding translation Example 3-2： [ST]近年来，风景区本着以人为本的宗旨，不断完善各 种配套设施建设，为旅客提供细致周到的便民服务和人 性化服务。 [TT] In recent years, in order to give first consideration to the need of people, Baiyun Mountain has been fitted up with modern comfort and convenience. Tourist can get nice service here.
The above translation does not accord with the original text. "以人为本" is translated into "give first consideration to the need of people", which is inconsistent with the correct translation of people oriented. "配套设施建设" is translated into "comfort and convenience". "为旅客提供细致周到的 便民服务和人性化服务" is translated into "tourist can get nice service here". It doesn't mention "便民" and "人性化". This gives visitors less information. Therefore, this sentence should be re-translated into "in recent years, in line with the people-oriented purpose, Baiyun Mountain Scenic Area constantly improves the construction of a variety of supporting facilities, to provide passengers with meticulous and thoughtful convenience services and humanized services."

Transformation deficiency in cultural dimension
Language is the carrier of culture. Emphasis should be put on culture when doing translation work. Accurate translation can let tourists know more about culture information. Wrong translation will lead to misunderstanding. Scenic spot always impart cultural knowledge to tourists, meaning that cultural aspects should be a focus for translation process.
In the above translation, the word "岭南" is translated into "Lingnan". "岭南" is the general name of the area south of the five ridges in south China. Currently, when people talks about "Lingnan", they means areas covering the Hainan, HKSAR, MSAR, Guangdong and Guangxi. If it is translated wrongly, misunderstanding will arise regarding cultural information about the scenic spot carried by the word. So, "Lingnan" should be re-translated into "south of the Five Ridges".
(2) Cultural neglect [TT] In the Second Opium War, Anglo-French Allied Force declared that their previous commercial firms were destroyed in the war and requested to establish a new one. Under the stress of the two countries, the Government of Qing Dynasty set Shamian as a settlement in ninth year during the reign of Emperor Xianfeng (1859) and dug an artificial river (now Shajichong) to the north of Shamian, making it an island.
In the above text, "十三行" is translated into "commercial firms". Commercial firm in modern language means a company dealing in goods and services. " 十 三 行 " was professional firming dealing with foreign trade in Qing Dynasty, but not a company. Therefore, the translation is not completely right. Many English words are evolved from Cantonese, such as Dimsum, Chowmein, Hagow and Siumai. " 十 三 行 " is located in Guangzhou. The cantonese pronunciation of "行" is "hong". It would be more down-toearth if translated into "hong". So, "十三行" should be retranslated into "The thirteen hongs in Canton". The translator neglects the local culture, which makes the translation imperfect.

Transformation failure in communicative dimension
Learning the target language requires a combination of mother tongues and good conversions with each other, so that there can be obstacles and difficulties. In reading and communication, readers of target language, in line with their appreciation habits and mental feelings, make use of the language expressions they are familiar with to achieve the best communicative effect of translation they expect. In the introductory texts of Guangzhou, it mainly reflects in the translation does not match the way people read in Englishspeaking countries.
(1) Unconventional expression In the translation, the first and second sentences are loosely structured. According to the ecology of the target language, the additional information and area of tourist attractions are often translated into one sentence. The above two sentences can form an appositive clauses. The whole sentence can be translated into "The 600-meter Canton Tower, the tallest tourist tower in China and the third tallest in the world, was construct on Nov. 25th, 2005 and opened on Oct. 1st, 2010." (2) Vague description Example 3-6： [ST]五只羊大小不一，造型生动而可爱。在最前面的是 一只小羊，它跪地吸乳，是报恩精神的象征；小羊旁边有 一只母羊，其回首顾盼，是慈爱的象征；另一边有一只小 羊，正低头吃草，十分专心，是勤劳的象征。 [TT] There are five vivid and cute goats of different ages. In the front is a lamb keening and sucking, which symbolizes gratitude; besides, the ewe looking back represents kindness; on the other side is a goat which lowers its head and focuses on grazing, and the goat is the token of diligence.
Although the language expression of the target language is vivid and concise, it is not clear enough in terms of orientation description. Put it another way, it's wrong to do translation work based on the surface meaning of Chinese characters. We should make the position more specific. For example, we can specifically translate "旁边" into "to the right", "另外一边" into "to the left".

Analysis for causes of existing problems
There are multi-layered, multi-faceted and multidimensional ecological environment that affects tourism translation (such as translators, tourists and travel agencies, etc.) as well as diverse, complex and integrated factors needing to adapt to the selection, which interweave and interconnect to form a whole. Problems based on the above translations, the thesis will analyse the causes from different viewpoint of ecological environment so as to provide the foundation for subsequent solutions.

Imbalance of translation management ecosystem
As a vital means for a scenic spot to introduce itself, introductory text can enable tourists to better know scenic spots. Therefore, the translation of introductory text is particularly important. Relevant departments in the tourism industry are not highly forward-looking. They ignore the importance of this work, and do not strictly regulate translation procedures and control the quality of translation. They should entrust the translation materials to those highquality translators or translation teams who have long been engaged in related tourism translations with high comprehensive quality and excellent business quality, and hire experts from relevant language countries to conduct school review. Special persons should be appointed to strengthen supervision to prevent errors in linguistic, cultural and communicative dimension during production due to staff negligence.

Imbalance of the ecosystem of translation by itself
The past few years have witnessed growing needs for talents proficient in translation in China. China has trained a host of talents proficient in translation who, in turn, enriched and contributed a lot to socialist construction in different fields. Nevertheless, expansion of talents also brought about some problems, for instance, less opportunities for practice, poor student quality, insufficient teaching staff and deficient education and management. The uneven quality of tourism translation is largely caused by the translator's own level and quality, which should be attributable to the specific selflearning, teaching and practice of translation. All the above factors cause the imbalance of the ecosystem of translation by itself. Therefore, in the context of translation talents blooming everywhere, translation teaching should be able to meet the needs of society and the market, and teacher teaching should be targeted to avoid randomness. In order to train more qualified and excellent translators, teachers and professor should constantly reflect on teaching, adopt flexible teaching methods to organize teaching, and, when conditions permit, hire as many experienced and long-term translators or teams to teach part-time. For the majority of translation students or those who would like to engage in translation work in the future, they are required to improve themselves in a comprehensive manner by keeping studying translation theories and participating in translation practices, enhancing their bilingual competence and cultural consciousness and persistently reinforcing learning.

Ignorance of sustainable development ecosystem
To keep pace with the development of tourism, governments put more emphasis on the development of scenic spots. Nonetheless, instead of attaching great importance to human environment, the majority of management personnel only make improvement in relevant facilities. Moreover, the importance of the human environment for improving the quality of the tourists is not be recognized. In their view, the improvement of the cultural environment will not bring direct economic benefits to the tourist spots in the short term. However, in the long run, the influence of the cultural environment on the tourist attractions is of great vitality. The good language ecosystem is extremely essential for the sustainable development of the scenic spot.

Applications of Eco-translatology in Translation
According to Professor Hu Gengshen who use the theory of adaptation and selection, a theory in biological evolution proposed by Darwin, as a philosophical basis, essence of translation lies in the translators' adjustment to themselves to adapt to the translation ecological environment. While the typical element of translation ecological environment is the adaptation of translators to the translation ecological environment, translators themselves are typical elements of translation ecological environment during selection of language in translation. Translators are granted two identities in such a process, that is, adaptation and selection, as a result of which, contents of the text after translation will be accurate, live and intuitive on the one hand; on the other hand, the communication and warning functions of the original text will be kept.
As the core of Eco-translatology, the theory of adaptation and selection in translation also forms the fundamental framework of Eco-translatology. As per the theory, translators act as a bridge linking the source text and the target language in the process of translation, and how the translators connect to the target language depend on his or her thinking mode, cultural background and other personal factors and interests. This requires translators to get straight the eco-environment features of the target text. Only in this way can translators successfully complete the text transplantation activities and ensure the survival of the translation.

Adaptation in multi-dimension during translation
China and countries with people communicating with each other in English may think in different way and have different logics in their languages, which is particularly evidenced by the utilization of introductory text. Most of the characteristics of China are implicit and pay attention to the rhetoric of words. That is to say, Chinese extremely emphasizes the beauty of word. Countries with people communicating with each other in English impress tourists deeply with simple, objective and concrete words. During the translation between the two languages, translators should use certain translation strategy under the guidance of translation theory selected as appropriate based on the full understanding of the differences between the two languages and culture. The ecological characteristics of C-E introductory texts are summarized in the following

Methods of selection and transformation in multi-dimension
There are multi-layered, multi-faceted and multidimensional ecological environment that affects tourism translation (such as translators, tourists and travel agencies, etc.) as well as diverse, complex and integrated factors needing to adapt to the selection, which interweave and interconnect to form a whole. In this sense, transformation of tourism translation has gone beyond linguistic dimension, cultural dimension and communicative dimension, but the three-dimensional transformation is the most important and can best reflect the complex process and universal principle of the adaptation and selection of tourism translation operations, which is the core representative of the complex mechanism in the process of ecological translation. The author will mainly explore the translation transformation strategies, ideas and specific methods and techniques of C-E introductory texts from a three-dimensional perspective. The author will analyze and re-translate the introductory texts of Guangzhou scenic spot.

Standardization
Translators should follow the standard of language standardization when they are involved in translation activities. Chiefly used in the transformation of language dimension, standardization is of great importance to effective communication. As translation equals to the transformation among different languages, the use of standard language become the most fundamental request for translation of the ecological environment. The translation of "简介" in Guangzhou scenic spots have many versions, including "A brief introduction to", "Brief introduction", "Brief introduction about", "Brief introduction of", "Introduction", "Introduction of", "Introduction to", "Guide" and "Navigation". In addition, some scenic spots only indicate their names and do not mention the "简介". The details are showed in the following table: Although the above translations have the similar meaning, it is unified. First, "guide" is mostly used to give someone directions. Second, "introduction" is used to provide people information. Then, people often use "navigation" to describe the process or technique of planning a route for a vessel or other transportation tools and taking it there. Forth, when introducing a scenic spot, the preposition "to" should be followed by "introduction" rather than "of" or "about". Therefore, the title of introductions to scenic spots should be uniformly translate into "Introduction to a scenic spot's name".

Diction
As a language with profound culture, Chinese features words with more than one connotation. It is of great importance to translators to select proper words in translation activities. The process of selection is essential to the transformation of linguistic, cultural and communicative dimensions.

Example 4-2：
[ST]黄道婆为元代女纺织家， 生于贫寒之家， 原籍上海。 后受封建压迫，迁往海南崖州，并在当地跟随黎族学习纺 织手艺。 [TT] Huang Daopo, a female textile expert in Yuan Dynasty, lived in a poor family when she was young. Due to the pressure of her feudal family, she drifted about from Shanghai and finally arrived at Yazhou, Hainan, where she learned textile technology from Li people.
"黎族人民" is translated into Li people. "黎族" can be translated into "Li Nationality", "Li" and "Li Ethnic Minority". Taking the eco-environment of Chinese (i.e. source language) into account, China has 56 ethnic groups, including Han and 55 national minorities. But the target reader don't know what that mean. "Li Ethnic Minority" can make readers know better and is conducive to ecological balance construction.

Amplification
Translation usually implies some related Chinese culture. However, only through literal translation, foreigners will not be able to understand its meaning. So, some explanatory words should be supplemented at the end of the text after translation to facilitate understanding. Amplification usually applies in cultural dimension.

Example 4-3：
[ST]第一层为敬奉"文昌"神像所设，第二层则为敬奉 "关帝"神像而设， 而顶层则为敬奉"魁星"神像而设。 旧时， 每逢"开冬学"，乡中幼年学子一定会来此叩拜，希望可以 学业有成，功成名就，平步青云。 [TT] The first floor was to serve Wen Chang God stature, second floor to serve Guan Di God stature, the top floor to serve Kui Xing God stature, with the purpose to praying for the children in Winter-study to learn a lot and get great achievement and have a stable career in the future.
In the above translation, "文昌神像" is translated into "Wen Chang God stature". "关帝神像" is translated into "Guan Di God stature". "魁星神像" is translated into "Kui Xing God stature". It is difficult for readers to understand them. In Chinese culture, Wen Chang God is the god of intellectual. Guan Di is a general affiliated to Shu Kingdom during the period of Three Kingdoms. Kui Xing God is a mythological god fabricated by ancient Chinese to control the rise and fall of articles. So it can be re-translated into following sentence: The first floor was to serve Wen Chang God stature (God of Intellectual), second floor to serve Guan Di God stature (General of the Shu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms), the top floor to serve Kui Xing God stature (God who controlled the rise and fall of articles in ancient Chinese mythology).

Omission
Domestic historical sites often involve many allusions and deeds. If you translate all the things without missing a word, it will be cumbersome, making it difficult for tourists to grasp the point. Under such a circumstance, it is necessary to omit some contents in Chinese characters which hinder the introductory text to scenic spots, so as to make clear the central idea. The author intends to explain that Baiyun Mountain is full of famous people and spread its historical fame. Therefore, in the translation, the translator summed up nearly 150 words of achievements with a sentence "Many celebrities in history and at the present time once visited it." On the other hand, if every celebrity, war and deed in the original text is translated, the translation will be cumbersome, covering the original intention to express the rich celebrity footprint of Baiyun Mountain.

Restructuring
Chinese is unique in language structure, and if converted into English without any change according to the original meaning and structure, is bound to be out of line with the reading habits of foreign tourists, making them difficult to understand, and even will not be interested in the scenic spots described. Therefore, the translator can reorganize the text at his discretion and even rewrite the text according to the conventions of the target language.
Example 4-5： [ST]白云山在新"羊城八景"中名列榜首。作为国家 5A 级景区、全国文明风景旅游区以及国家重点风景名胜区， 白云山地处广州东北，占地面积为 20.98 平方公里，在南 粤闻名遐迩。自古人们就称白云山为"羊城第一秀"。其主 峰为摩星岭，高度 382 米，站在峰顶可俯瞰整个广州市 区。 [TT] Located in northeast of downtown Guangzhou, the Baiyun Mountain covers a total area of 20.98m2. As a 5A scenic area of national grade, it is the only national scenic area in Guangzhou. It has great fame in the south of Guangzhou. Since the ancient times, people have reputed the mountain as the most magnificent mountain in Guangzhou. Moxing Ridge, with a height of 382m, is the main peak of the mountain, from which people can oversee the whole Guangzhou City.
The translation adopts the translation strategy of integration and rewriting, which adjusts the original text, disrupts the word order of the original text, and advances the sentences containing important information, such as the geographical location and area of Baiyun Mountain, to the beginning of the translation. The whole paragraph is divided into three meaning groups according to the content, so that the focus of the translation is prominent and distinct. After the rewriting and integration above, the text after translation has a more compact structure and can convey information in a clearer manner.

Conclusion
Tourism translation serves not only as a way of communication for different languages but also as a carrier during cultural transmission. In order to effectively achieve the purpose of translating tourism publicity materials, translators should base on the theory of ecological translation adaptation and selection and start from the perspective of spreading Chinese culture and realizing the expected functions of discourse. In translation, translators are required to complete two tasks: a. bringing tourism information in the source text to target readers; b. introducing scenic spots related tourism culture to target readers. Meanwhile, it is necessary for us to select proper translation skills while quitting the original form as required based on the understanding of both language and cultural differences between the source text and the text after translation. Under the guidance of the overall translation strategies and principles, we should flexibly use a variety of translation methods to create a good international language ecological environment, so as to maximize the expected functions of the translation and attract more international tourists. Nowadays, China with increasingly frequent international exchanges and a long history of ancient, has become a hot spot for foreign tourists. Translators involved should firmly grasp the bilingual knowledge in relation to Chinese culture, and undertake the historical responsibility to develop and spread Chinese culture, so that the goal of enabling China to be