A Study on Dish Names Translation in A Bite of China from the Perspective of Domestication and Foreignization

The food documentary A Bite of China made a hit in China and has been translated into different languages for broadcast in various countries. Most of the relevant research has focused on food culture, subtitle translation, and communication studies, with relatively little attention given to its translation of dish names. This study explores the English translation of dish names from the perspective of domestication and foreignization. It has been found that A Bite of China flexibly applies domestication and foreignization in Chinese to English translation. Dish names that include ingredients and cooking methods, or those with metaphors, or abstract names, are primarily translated with domestication strategy, while dish names that have been well-known in the world, or those actively “going global”, are mainly handled in a foreignization way; those with strong regional characteristics and have equivalent vocabulary in English demonstrate a translation combining both domestication and foreignization.