An Analysis of the Korean Translation of Cultural Load Words in “Telling China’s culture in Korean”

As exchanges between countries become increasingly frequent, the importance of external publicity is also being highlighted. In order to carry out external publicity, the role of translation is particularly important. Translation is an indispensable part of enhancing a country's cultural soft power and establishing an accurate image of China in external publicity. This study aims to examine how cultural elements are translated into Korean in the Chinese cultural textbook “Telling China’s culture in Korean” Additionally, by categorizing the cultural elements presented in “Telling China’s culture in Korean” into ecological cultural elements, material cultural elements, institutional cultural elements, customary cultural elements, conceptual cultural elements, and linguistic cultural elements, the study found that the translator adopted various methods such as literal translation, free translation, transliteration, philological translation, adaptation, and addition when translating cultural elements. Because cultural elements contain cultural connotations, the translator employed multiple translation methods together rather than a single method to accurately convey the true meaning of the original text to the readers. While analyzing the translated text, many inappropriate expressions were found, and suggestions for revisions were also provided. Through this study, it is hoped that many books containing Chinese culture will be translated into foreign languages and widely disseminated in the future.