Abstract:

From a transknowletological perspetive, this paper discusses the cultural behavior and social practice of “knowledge processing, reconstruction and retransmission” of the renowned American Sinologist Burton Watson in his process of translating Chinese culture into English, especially his translational practical aesthetics of “knowledge archaeology” and “discourse restructuring ”. Under the background of this new era, it has extremely important theoretical value, practical value and immediate significance to strengthen the theoretical research of international communication, construct the international discourse system, improve the art of discourse communication, promote the global expression, regional expression and focused expression of Chinese stories and Chinese voices, and enhance the affinity and effectiveness of Chinese discourse translation and international communication. Meantime, if we examine the feedback mechanism such as communication and distribution channels, library collections, Amazon book sales ranking and reader evaluations, we also need to reflect upon the deficiencies and shortcomings of Watson’s translation practice and find practical ways to solve them.

Key words: Burton Watson, archaeology of knowledge, discourse restructuring, translation and introduction, international communication