Problems of Today’s Trademark Translation (I)

 

Introduction

With more and more foreign products flooding into China and Chinese products exported abroad, trademark translation has become an increasingly significant part of marketing strategy. A well-translated trademark will help attract customers and inspire their enthusiasm for purchase; while a trademark translated improperly sometimes will bring negative effects or even lead to spoilage of the image of the product. In today’s market, we can find a lot of ingeniously translated trademarks, but we should also be aware of some problems in trademark translation. Through analyzing those problems and giving possible suggestions, this paper holds that only a customer-oriented translation will succeed in the market.

1. Problems in Chinese-English trademark translation

It seems to me that many Chinese manufacturers have not fully realized the importance of trademark translation. Some translated trademarks of their products reflect an attitude of irresponsibility and rashness of translators. They have not realized that with such an attitude they may lose many potential customers.

1.1 Trademarks without translation

English or pinyin version of trademarks will be useful in attracting foreign customers. To my surprise, many China-made products have no English version of their trademarks at all, even without pinyin! I was confused when I saw among them some famous brands such as “步步高”, “两面针”, “脑白金” and “立白”. Why these enterprises are so ‘shy’ to put the English version on the products? How can this kind of products attract those foreigners who do not know Chinese? I don’ think it is a wise practice in today’s domestic or overseas market.

1.2 Improper translation

Transliteration, literal translation and semantic transliteration, i.e., “a combination of phonetic transcription and semantic manipulation” (Hu Qingping, 2001, p.28) are three most commonly used approaches in trademark translation. However, not all the trademarks translated into English or pinyin are successful. Actually, some of them even cause negative effects rather than bring profits to manufacturers.

1.2.1 Abused transliteration

Comparatively speaking, transliteration is the easiest job for translators. In today’s market, most of the Chinese trademarks are transliterated , such as Chunlan(春兰), Meiling(美菱) and Changhong(长虹). Although transliteration maintains the original pronunciation of trademarks, it cannot convey the meaning of the original trademarks to customers. Therefore, pinyin spelling is usually meaningless to those foreigners who do not know Chinese at all. On the other hand, they are usually difficult to pronounce and remember. Here are some typical examples of abused transliteration: “正大青春宝” is translated as “Zheng Da Qing Chun Bao”, “云山复方鲜竹沥” as “Yun Shan Fu Fang Xian Zhu Li”, “Huang He Lou” for “黄鹤楼”, and “Shou Xi Hu” for “瘦西湖”.

Sometimes, a pinyin spelling may coincide with the spelling of an English word or a word in other languages. In that case, translators should be especially careful to avoid arousing misunderstandings of customers. A story about trademark translation in Yangtse Evening Post (Feb. 9, 2002) is a good example: “卡卡”, the trademark of a kind of China-made biscuits, was translated as “KAKA”. When the products arrived Russia, the Russian loaders got shocked to find that all the boxes printed with “KAKA”，because in Russian, “KAKA” refers to shit! Another similar example is “马戏” playing cards, transliterated as “MAXIPUKE”, which turn to be a funny English trademark, indicating “ to puke maximally”! “芳芳” is a beautiful Chinese trademark of children’s talcum powder, but the pinyin “Fang Fang” turns to be terrible, because “fang” is also an English word, which refers to teeth of a wolf!

1.2.2 Improper literal translation

Different from transliteration, literal translation will help customers to understand the original meaning of trademarks while neglecting the original pronunciation. Similarly, this approach is not suitable for all the trademarks.

1.2.2.1 Long literally translated trademarks

Because of the conciseness of Chinese, a trademark consisted of only two or three Chinese characters may include more English words after literal translation. For example, “宜而爽”, a famous brand of textile products, is translated as “A Natural Fit and Comfort”. A well-known brand of napkin “心相印” is translated as “Mind Acts upon Mind”. Although both their meanings are closely equivalent to those of the original ones, the trademarks are too long to be good trademarks.

1.2.2.2 Unfavorable association

Trademarks are usually favorably associative. However, because of the different psychology, tradition, custom, religion and history between Chinese and foreign customers, a favorable-associative trademark will arouse unfavorable associations when literally translated into another language.

For example, “bat” and “dragon” are usually positive and auspicious images in China, and they are often used in Chinese trademarks such as “蝙蝠” and “华龙”. In the west, however, dragon and bat are often connected with negative images. Dragon is an evil animal and bat is associated with ugliness and greed. Therefore, “Dragon” and “Bat” are not suitable translations for the trademarks “华龙” and “蝙蝠”. “Petrel” often occurs as the translated version of the trademark “海燕”. In Chinese culture, it is a symbol of bravery and perseverance, but in the western world, people often associate it with a person whose existence excites discontentment and quarreling in a social group.

More examples are following. “大白兔”(“Rabbit”) is associated with “insecurity or a person who plays a game badly” (Guo Jianzhong, 2000, P. 361); “喜鹊”(Magpie”) stands for gossipmonger in English; “鹅”(“Goose”) is a synonym of foolishness; “孔雀”(“Peacock”) symbolizes conceit and “仙鹤”(“Crane”) is thought to be an ugly bird in English Culture.

Sometimes, an improper translation would even cause vulgarism. I believe that most Chinese people will still blush when they get to know what an embarrassing mistake they have made in translating “金鸡” as “Golden Cock”, because in English “cock” has the vulgar meaning. It seems that people have not learned the lesson yet. I felt shocked and even shameful to know that the English version of “乌鸡白凤丸” is “ Black Cock White Phoenix Pills”, together with an introduction of the product: “Black Cocks Provide the Vital Tonic for Women”. The translator of this brand must have not realized that he is actually destroying the image of the famous brand!

2.Problems in English-Chinese trademark translation

Compared to Chinese-English trademark translation, trademarks translated from English to Chinese are more flexible and successful. Among them, some classic ones get so popular that they have become household vocabulary, such as “可口可乐”(“Coca-Cola”) and “百事可乐”(“Pepsi Cola”).Nevertheless, problems are also found in English-Chinese trademark translation.

2.1 Cliche transliteration

Transliteration, the usual method in English-Chinese trademark translation, often brings customers a kind of foreign style, indicating high quality of products. When those trademarks first occur in the market, they might inspire customers’ curiosity. Since they are easy to read and remember, they became popular in China. However, having come across too many trademarks with a “foreign style”, customers will become less interested in them. Nowadays, we have too many trademarks transliterated with such Chinese characters as “特”, “斯” and “克”, for instance, “赛特”, “飞亚特”, “阿尔法特”, “迪斯”, “真维斯”, “高斯”, “伊莱克斯”, “别克” and “星巴克”.

2.1 Lack of consistency

Due to the different cultural background in Mainland and other areas, translations of trademarks often have different versions. For example, “Head & Shoulder’s” is translated as “海伦仙度丝” in Taiwan; while in mainland, it is translated as “海飞丝”. The different translation versions of the same foreign trademark will cause inconvenience and confusion to customers. It is harmful for the manufacturer to establish a uniform image.