Abstract

In recent years, many Hollywood blockbusters full of Chinese elements are quite popular in both western and eastern world. In cultural exchange, the essential translation remains a tough task for most translators. Especially for the profound and mysterious Chinese elements, we often see mistranslation, cultural vacancies and excessive use of domesticating strategies. Translation theories widely applied in the translation of Chinese culture, such as functionalist theory and relevance theory, are also not quite suitable for film translation, which is different from book translation that can be read back and forth with annotation. Under these circumstances, the newly proposed eco-translatology provides us with a good perspective. This article aims to prove the applicability of eco-translatology by analyzing three typical American films with Chinese elements, Mulan, Kung Fu Panda 3 and The Forbidden Kingdom. Some translation examples are cited to see how the translator adapts to the ecological environment and transform Chinese elements from multi-dimensions. The result shows that eco-translatology has a good adaptability and a strong explanatory power to the translation of Chinese elements in films.