去年8月份，北京启动了“迎奥运—传神诠释老字号”公益翻译活动，北京地区50余家老字号通过互联网，向全世界征集“洋名”；收到全球25万多名翻译志愿者提交的翻译作品25万余份，其中来自海外的翻译作品约占总数的20%，主要集中在华人聚集较多的加拿大、美国及东南亚等地区。
经过初评和复评的严格筛选，由北京外国语大学高级翻译学院院长王立弟、中科院翻译工作者协会副会长李亚舒、民俗学家赵书等翻译专家及民俗专家组成终评组委会，对参赛作品进行评审、讨论和修改，最终给6家老字号取了新“洋名”。
主办方表示，除首批公布的六家老字号企业外，数十家的老字号企业还需要全球的志愿者提交优秀的翻译作品。活动组委会日前已正式宣布启动活动第二季。市民可点击www.transn.com查询或提交作品。
洋名对照
全聚德 Quanjude Peking Roast Duck-Since 1864
吴裕泰 Wuyutai Tea Shop-Since 1887
同仁堂 Tongrentang Chinese Medicine-Since 1669
瑞蚨祥 Ruifuxiang Silk-Since 1862
荣宝斋 Rongbaozhai Art Gallery-Since 1672
王致和 Wangzhihe Gourmet Food- Since 1669
I am a bit of a translation snob and was disappointed to read that despite all the worldwide entries and big-name university professors, all the translations came out quite unimpressive indeed. The "since xxx year" is quite nice, but name-wise, at least call it "Wuyutai Tea House" instead of "Tea Shop", "Tongrentang Chinese Medical Hall" instead of plain vanilla "Chinese Medicine", and then try translate the very poetic and literary "斋" into something other than "gallery". ("Gourmet Food" sounds wrong, but since I don't know "王致和" and the nature of the store, I can't comment further.)
There are quite a few well-done translations of brand names here and one of the best I have seen is that for the American stationery company Home Depot which is next door to our office. It was translated as "家得宝“ which achieved the effect of 译音又译义 (translating both the sound and the meaning)。Apparently the story goes that they spent money asking a translation company to do translate but were unsatisfied by the results. Then they happened to mention to a boss in our firm over lunch and he came up with the current one. Voila.
Post-script: I agree more whole-heartedly with the translation of Chinese dishes such as »this, though I think Kungpao Chicken should remain Kungpao Chicken... Most people who eat Chinese takeout overseas would know this.
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