Abstract:

The terminology translation of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is an important cross-linguistic activity to express the ICH knowledge. Although the translation rationale based on the concepts of ICH has been promoting the standardization of translating ICH terms in China, there is a lack of in-depth thoughts on how to clarify the core conceptual elements of ICH terms. From a review of the conceptual motivation, this article proposes a motivation based on the knowledge system of ICH for its translation, namely that ICH knowledge is characterized by three hierarchies, i.e., the material, behavioral and spiritual levels, and terms in different hierarchies have different conceptual characteristics. Through discussions on the knowledge system of Chinese paper-cut terminology and its translation practices, this article also demonstrates that the knowledge motivation can be effectively applied to the translation of ICH terms in guiding translators to clarify the conceptual connotations of the terms and the corresponding translation needs.

Key words: ICH terminology, terminology translation, knowledge motivation, Chinese paper-cut, terminology hierarchies