Modern Social Science Research

As core carriers of ethnic culture, culture-loaded words profoundly embody the historical heritage and spiritual essence of specific socio-cultural contexts. Their translation is fundamentally an act of meaning reconstruction across cultural boundaries. Grounded in the theoretical framework of Eco-Translatology, this study conducts an in-depth analysis of the translation strategies applied to culture-loaded words in Lin Yutang’s English rendition of Six Chapters of a Floating Life. Addressing the persistent challenges of cultural divergence and semantic loss in translating such terms, the research systematically examines how the translator achieves dynamic adaptation and balance across linguistic, cultural, and communicative dimensions, while evaluating the efficacy of four categories of culture-loaded words in the target text. A comparative analysis reveals that Lin’s translation adeptly combines domestication and foreignization strategies, supplemented by diverse techniques such as literal and free translation, thereby ensuring both accurate cultural transference and effective communicative functionality. This study not only offers theoretical insights and strategic guidance for cultivating translators’ cultural awareness but also contributes innovative perspectives to cross-cultural translation studies.

Ecological translation; Culturally loaded words; Six Records of a Floating Life; Naturalization and alienation