海派文化翻译中的“形”与“神”——以上海工艺美术馆双语语料为例

The “Form” and “Spirit” in the Translation of Shanghai-Style Culture—A Case Study Based on Bilingual Corpus from the Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts

摘要: 本文以海派文化为研究对象，通过上海工艺美术博物馆双语语料，探讨翻译策略及其文化传递效果。海派文化作为上海“中西合璧”的独特现象，体现开放性与多元性。基于奈达的功能对等理论，本文分析了展品标签及文化专有项的翻译实践，揭示翻译在文化传播中的作用。研究发现，成功的译文需平衡文化特异性与受众可理解性，通过简洁艺术化的语言保留海派文化的“形”与“神”。然而，部分译文因信息丢失或误译而削弱传播效果，需优化文化背景表达。本文提出“功能优先”原则，为海派文化的国际化呈现提供新视角，并为博物馆文化传播提供理论支持。未来可进一步研究其他海派文化元素及多模态翻译策略。

Abstract: This paper takes Shanghai-style culture as its research subject and, through a bilingual corpus from the Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts, explores translation strategies and their effectiveness in cultural transmission. As a distinctive phenomenon reflecting Shanghai’s “East-meets-West” character, Shanghai-style culture embodies openness and diversity. Grounded in Nida’s Functional Equivalence theory, this study analyzes translation practices for exhibit labels and culture-specific items, revealing the role of translation in cultural communication. The findings indicate that successful translations must balance cultural specificity with comprehensibility, preserving both the “form” and “spirit” of Shanghai-style culture through concise and artistic language. However, some translations weaken communicative effectiveness due to information loss or misinterpretation, calling for improved expression of cultural context. This paper proposes a “function-first” principle, offering a new perspective for the international presentation of Shanghai-style culture and providing theoretical support for museum-based cultural communication. Future research may further explore other elements of Shanghai-style culture and multimodal translation strategies.