What is literal title translation?

Part One:
Journey to the West - Chapter 101: The Moonlit Treasure Box

Part Two:
Journey to the West - The Final Chapter: A Romance in Fairyland

Here are the translated titles at my local DVD store:

Chinese odyssey part one: Pandora's box
Chinese odyssey part two: Cinderella

The title literally reads:

Journey To The West Episode 101: The Moonlight Jewelry Box

Journey To The West The Big Conclusion: Amazing Encounter with the Celestial Slippers

Yut gwong - Moonlight
Bou haap - Jewelry box, treasure chest, a case of valuables
Sin leui - Celestial/magic slippers, Chinese translation of Cinderella
Kei yun - Amazing encounter/fate

As is evidenced in the literal Chinese, almost everything in Western literature is guaranteed an awkward transition into Chinese language. Fairy tales and western myths such as Cinderella and Pandora's Box have no precedent in Chinese culture. It is not hard to imagine that when the stories were first introduced to China, people there must have had a hard time struggling with names like Pandora and Cinderella. I mean let's face it, these words just don't roll off the Chinese tongue like "potstickers". Thus the people take the easy way out, by replacing the challenging words with daily vocabulary. And this is why it is harder to find the so-called "Engrish" in Chinese language; people there are not quite as English-fetishizing as the Japanese. Whereas Pandora's Box in Japanese would be "Pandora no hako" and Cinderella would be "Shinderera", the Chinese having shut themselves off from the rest of the world until the 20th century, have never developed katakana. And even now, they don't see English integration as a necessity.

To better appreciate the task of a Chinese translator, see Star Trek: TNG, the episode titled Darmok. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmok

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