Government work reports in China can be mainly defined as important speeches and remarks given by the leaders, policy documents, official reports, or newspaper editorials in the fields of foreign affairs, cultural exchanges, business and trade, science and technology, etc. Peter Newmark has pided the texts into three types——the expressive text, the informative one and the vocative one (Newmark, 2010: 12). The speeches and remarks of the political figures basically belong to the category of “expressive texts” while the official documents and reports of the government can be categorized, to a large extent, as “informative texts”. Most of the political documents are usually a combination of at least two types of functional texts, mostly “expressive texts” and “informative texts”.

Government work reports serve as one of the most important channels of external propaganda. Objectively speaking, government work reports are typically political materials. It is worthwhile to make a research on the translation of government work reports because such research can not only make a summary analysis but also put forward some new ideas contributing to the future translation of government work reports. From a subjective point of view, doing research on translation of government work reports may help English-major students to master more political vocabulary and learn more about political translation. Besides, such kind of research is of great use for them to take part in exams like Shanghai Higher Interpretation, CATTI, CETI, and etc.

The purpose of this research can be listed as follows. First of all, the research aims to make a summary analysis of political translation, which helps the readers comprehend the features and translation strategies of government work reports. Secondly, the research focuses on the application of functional equivalence theory to the translation of government work reports. Its purpose includes pointing out the advantage of using this theory. Last but not least, in terms of the phenomenon of Chinglish, the research lists some examples in 2013 Government Work Report, gives some suggestions put forward by famous translators, and at the same time, offers some ideas of the author.

External propaganda has three “getting close to” principles. It should be close to the reality of China’s development, to China’s information needed by foreign audience, and to thinking habits of foreign audience. The same is true in political translation. (Jia Yuling, 2013: 110) However, at present, political translation has some problems such as redundancy and Chinglish. Foreigners may have difficulty in understanding Chinese government work reports because of poor translation. Nida’s functional equivalence theory is definitely appropriate for the research of political translation including economic and political terms with Chinese characteristics. This theory emphasizes on vocabulary, syntax and passage equivalence, which is suitable for political translation. This thesis will focus on how to apply functional equivalence theory to political translation, the existing problems in political translation and relevant solutions. 

This thesis comprises seven chapters. Chapter one serves as an introduction and presents the significance, purpose and opinion. Chapter two reviews the former research achievements and current status. Chapter three proceeds to introduce the functional equivalence theory. Chapter four summarizes features of government work reports. Chapter five discusses equivalence in the translation of economic and political terms with Chinese characteristics by giving examples, analysis and solutions. Chapter six briefly discusses equivalence in the translation of the context. Finally, chapter seven concludes the whole thesis and points out the significance and limitations of the present thesis.

2. Literature Review源'自:吹冰`!论~文'网www.chuibin.com

Throughout the history of translation in China, the translation of government work reports is still in its infancy. Since the May Fourth Movement, many scholars have made great contributions to translating Marxist Classics into Chinese. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the formal C-E translation of government work reports emerged. In the 1950s, senior translators like Qian Zhongshu and Wang Zuoliang, together with other English scholars, successfully translated the first three volumes of the Selected Works of Mao-Tse-tung. After the implementation of reform and opening up policy, political translation has boomed and played an increasingly important role.