Abstract:

With Chinese culture spreading to the world, the term Dongfang ren is used not only in works of literature, but also by foreign media. However, most of the influential online dictionaries and authorities on translation in China have translated the phrase into Oriental and Easterner, which is bound to cause misunderstanding among learners and readers from different cultures. Based on COCA corpus and CCL corpus, the author analyzes from four perspectives: word frequency, collocation, MI Value and semantic prosody, and finally suggests that Dongfang ren should be translated into “East Asians” or “Asian Americans” or “Orientals” based on different understandings and contexts in order to avoid ambiguity.

Key words: Dongfang ren, Translation, COCA Corpus, Oriental, Asian Americans