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Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 02 No. 01 (2022) 
ISSN (online): 2766-791X 
ISSN (print):    2770-6354  

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Domestication and Foreignization in English Versions of Huawei’s New Year 
Messages from 2017 to 2022 

Huiying ZHANG1, Zhanghong XU2, 

1 School of English for International Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China, E-mail: 
20200310048@gdufs.edu.cn 
 2 (Corresponding Author) School of English for International Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China, 
E-mail: 200311121@oamail.gdufs.edu.cn 

Abstract 
New Year message, an important source for understanding cultural differences, is understudied at present, in particular in 
the field of translation. Based on Xiong (2014)’s classification of translation strategies and translation methods, this paper 
investigates the English versions of Huawei’s New Year messages delivered from 2017 to 2022 from the perspective of 
domestication and foreignization. Results suggest that (1) three translation methods are employed, namely literal translation, 
liberal translation, and imitation; (2) literal translation as a foreignization-oriented method fails to communicate the message 
of the source text in many circumstances and makes it difficult for the target readers to understand the target text since it 
retains the expressions that are unique in the source language; and (3) liberal translation and imitation as domestication-
oriented methods help facilitate target readers’ understanding of the source text. The current study is believed to shed light 
on further studies on New Year messages. 
Keywords: New Year message; domestication; foreignization; translation method 
1. Introduction
Delivering a New Year message at the end of the year or at the very beginning of the next year is now a common practice in 
China (Dong & Xiong, 2012; Zhu, 2015). New Year message (hereinafter referred to briefly as NYM), also called New 
Year speech, New Year greeting, or New Year congratulation, is highly valued, for it shows not only how the speaker 
reflects on the past year but also how he/she upbeats about the future (Zhang et al., 2016; Zhang & Zhang, 2017; Zhu, 
2015), thereby helpful in constructing one’s image (Zhang, 2015).  
NYM as a text that reflects contemporary thoughts and social change is worthy of being investigated (Li & Wang, 2014). 
Indeed, since NYM is delivered in certain cultural and historical contexts, it should be deemed as an important resource for 
understanding a specific culture. The NYMs of Southern Weekly, for instance, embody the traditional beliefs in Chinese 
society, namely righteousness, conscience, rationality, and humanity, in the summaries of what happened over the past years 
(Dong & Xiong, 2012).  
Traditionally, NYM is delivered by national leaders to their people (see e.g., Arcimaviciene & Jonaitiene, 2015; Jiang & 
Yang, 2019; Čech, 2014) and publications and journals to their readers (see e.g., Li & Wang, 2014; Peng, 2009; Zeng, 
2021). Recent years, however, have witnessed an increasing number of NYMs extended by companies, especially the 
companies that are influential industrially, nationally, or even internationally. Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd (hereinafter 
referred to as Huawei), which operates in over 170 countries and regions and serves more than 3 billion people worldwide, 
is a case in point.  
As a leading global provider of information and communications technology infrastructure and smart devices, Huawei has 
attracted the attention of scholars specializing in translation (see e.g., Guo, 2020; Ouyang, 2021; Sun & Sheng, 2017). 
However, relevant studies on the NYMs delivered by Huawei are in a way scarce although some scholars have studied 
Huawei’s brand name (Y. Guo, 2020), product instructions (Wang & Gao, 2019), company profile (Li, 2020), chairman’s 
message in the annual report (Ouyang, 2021), and advertisements (Sun & Sheng, 2017). Considering that the NYMs of 
Huawei are inevitably characterized by Chinese culture in general and the organizational culture of Huawei in particular, the 
current study takes the English versions of Huawei’s NYMs from 2017 to 2022 as a sample to discuss the translation 
strategies and methods used.  
The current study is structured as follows. After introducing the importance of NYM, Section 2 reviews the notion of 
domestication and foreignization, as well as relevant studies on NYM. Section 3 analyzes the domesticating and 



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foreignizing strategies in English versions of Huawei’s New Year messages from 2017 to 2022, followed by concluding 
remarks in Section 4. 
2. Literature Review
This section provides an overview of domestication and foreignization, after which relevant studies on NYM are 
summarized. 
2.1 Overview of Domestication and Foreignization 
The notion of domestication and foreignization was proposed by Lawrence Venuti, a famous American translation theorist, 
in his book The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation published in 1995. Nevertheless, what should be noted is 
that it was Friedrich Schleiermacher, a German philosopher and theologian, who first introduced domestication and 
foreignization as contrasting methods (which were conceptualized as “Entfremdung” and “Verfremdung” by 
Schleiermacher respectively). Schleiermacher believed that translators using Entfremdung “leaves the reader in peace, as 
much as possible, and moves the author towards him” while the translators employing Verfremdung “leaves the author in 
peace as much as possible and moves the reader towards him” (qtd. Venuti, 2008: 28). 
Venuti further developed Schleiermacher’s ideas of translation methods. Venuti took Schleiermacher’s Entfremdung as a 
domesticating strategy (or domestication) and Verfremdung as a foreignizing strategy (or foreignization). Domestication, as 
Venuti (2008) clarified, involves rewriting the source language and requires the translator to replace the cultural background 
of the source language with that of the target language. Readers of the target text, therefore, should be prioritized and 
expressions commonly used in the target language should be employed. As a macro-level strategy, domestication narrows 
the distance between the target readers and the author both linguistically and emotionally.  
Foreignization, on the other hand, places great emphasis on preserving the source language and the national characters 
presented therein because cultural differences are highlighted. The translator is expected to take the customs and linguistic 
characteristics into consideration, use the expressions derived from the source language, and convey the ideas of the author 
as accurately as possible. Since foreignization is advocated to demonstrate the distinctive features of a specific culture, 
understanding the target text will be challenging to the readers.  
Although domestication was popular at that time, Venuti himself was inclined to adopt foreignization at the very beginning. 
Venuti counted foreignization as a means for restraining the ethnocentric violence in translation, and for opposing the 
hegemony of English-speaking countries and their unequal cultural exchanges with other countries as he claimed that 
“foreignizing translation in English can be a form of resistance against ethnocentrism and racism, cultural narcissism 
and imperialism, in the interests of democratic geopolitical relations” (Venuti, 2008: 16). The translator’s invisibility is a 
weird self-annihilation, a way of conceiving and practicing translation that undoubtedly reinforces its marginal status 
because it is partly determined by the individualistic conception of authorship that continues to prevail in Anglo-
American culture (Venuti, 2008). Hence, Venuti advocated a non-fluent translation with a view to emphasizing the foreign 
identity of the source text and eliminating the invisibility of translators.  
Although heated debate has been sparked about the use of domestication and foreignization since the notion of the two 
translation strategies was introduced into China (cf. Sun, 2002; Cai, 2002), more and more scholars have realized that 
domestication and foreignization are compatible with each other rather than mutually exclusive (see e.g., Guo, 2008; Xiong, 
2014; Yuan, 2010). Yuan (2010), for example, advocated a combination of domestication and foreignization based on 
translation practice in reality. Xiong (2014) further discussed such concepts as translation strategies, translation methods, 
and translation techniques, with a belief that domestication and foreignization merely demonstrated the tendency of the 
translator. Venuti himself also explained in an interview that domestication and foreignization are not necessarily 
incompatible (Guo, 2008; Yuan, 2010). 
2.2 Previous Studies on New Year Message 
NYM, as a text that reflects contemporary thoughts and social change, is worthy of being investigated (Li & Wang, 2014). 
Studies on NYM did not flourish until the recent decades, whereas most of them are focused on the NYMs extended by 
media and national leaders from the perspective of media communication, linguistics, and narratives. 
Scholars specializing in media communication are one of the first that realize the importance of NYM, given that NYM is 
naturally connected with media communication. Zhang et al. (2016), for example, have explored the topics of the NYMs 
extended by Southern Weekly from 1997 to 2016 and how the collective memory of it varied with those topics. Results 
suggested that over the past two decades, the role of Southern Weekly has evolved to be a “mixed” one from enlightener, 



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recorder/monitor, and interpreter, and that collective memory of the “golden age” of Southern Weekly has ever been 
constructed on social media. Zhang and Zhang (2017) conducted discursive research on how media established authority in 
media convergence based on the NYMs delivered by 48 news outlets in 2016. It was found that the news outlets controlled 
by the Communist Party of China (CPC) established their authority by stressing the ruling legitimization of the CPC while 
market-oriented ones established their authority by emphasizing their performance, morality, and history. 
Some scholars have discussed how national leaders use NYMs to deliver their ideas of ruling. Wang & Zhang (2019) and 
Tian & Chen (2017) investigated the ideology and art of ruling presented in the NYMs sent by Xi Jinping, concluding that 
Xi Jinping succeeded in helping enhance the dominant ideology in China (cf. Li, 2015; Li & Ju, 2018; Zheng et al., 2014). 
Tong et al. (2018) analyzed the NYMs extended by Xi Jinping from 2014 to 2018 based on coding theory and discourse 
analysis. Findings indicated that the content of NYMs collected and channels through which they were communicated were 
characterized with media convergence by being structurally stable, combing ideology with content, using natural and 
endearing words, being spread to the world via multimedia, etc. 
Linguistic studies on NYMs are relatively sparse with much attention paid to the NYMs sent by national leaders (see e.g., 
Alikberova et al., 2015; Jiang & Yang, 2019; Wang, 2022; Huang & Zhu, 2018). Arcimaviciene and Jonaitiene (2015) 
evaluated the use of metaphor in the presidential New Year greetings of twelve political leaders, using the analytical 
framework of Critical Metaphor Analysis and procedurally employing Pragglejaz Group’s Metaphor Identification 
Procedure. The evaluation of the 409 metaphoric clusters identified showed that hard and soft power skills within the ethical 
dimension were evoked by different political leaders. Specifically, hard power leadership was more varied at the pragmatic, 
intermediary, and transactional levels of semantic representation, while female leaders were more democratic in their 
conceptualization and linguistic preferences than their male counterparts.  
The interpersonal function analysis of Li (2018) on the NYM for 2018 delivered by Xi Jinping demonstrated that using 
indicative mood helped narrow the distance between the speaker and the audience, thus making it easier for the audience to 
accept the information conveyed by the speaker. Employing modal verbs, similarly, helped reveal the leader’s determination 
and commitment while using the first-person pronoun frequently implied that the leader stayed together with his people. 
Čech (2014) conducted a thematic analysis of the New Year speeches given by Czechoslovak and Czech presidents and 
proved that there were differences between the thematic concentrations in the speeches of presidents from the totalitarian 
period and the period of democracy although the relationship was not simple and direct.  
Few studies have explored NYMs from the perspective of narratives. Dong and Xiong (2012) discussed the characteristics 
of the narrative in 13 NYMs of Southern Weekly, including highly political and representative events, a combination of 
macro and micro perspectives, praise and criticism, history and the present, as well as showing the beliefs of Southern 
Weekly. Shi (2012) probed the NYMs of Southern Weekly from its identity, topics, and outcome. In terms of the identity of 
Southern Weekly, the author believed that attention was turned to “us” from “the underprivileged”, “individuals”, and 
“citizens”. The topics, on the other hand, changed to “harmony” from “revolution”, “democracy” and “rights” while at the 
same time the NYMs had become a national narrative rather than an individual narrative. Zeng (2021) analyzed the NYMs 
of People’s Daily from 1979 to 2020 utilizing corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis. The study concluded that 
three types of narratives were intertwined, in which the identity constructed by the collective-oriented narrative laid a solid 
foundation for the socialist-oriented and reform-oriented narratives while the latter two helped strengthen the identity by 
highlighting the remarkable achievements of the Chinese people. 
Despite the above-mentioned discussions on NYM, few, if not any, scholars have explored NYM from the perspective of 
translation. NYM, which is naturally and closely linked to the cultural environment in which it is extended, is an important 
resource for discovering and handling cultural differences. Given that translation is, likewise, a practice that deals with 
cultural differences, the current study aims to investigate how translators of Huawei’s NYMs address the culture-related 
problems from the perspective of domestication and foreignization. 
3. Domestication and Foreignization in the English Versions of Huawei’s New Year Messages 
The current study adopts Xiong (2014)’s classification of translation strategies and translation methods (as shown in Table 
1) as a framework for analyzing the English versions of Huawei’s NYMs from 2017 to 2022. A total of five NYMs were 
collected since Huawei did not extend an NYM for 2021. Three translation methods are identified in the current study, 
namely literal translation, liberal translation, and imitation, each with different translation techniques.  
 



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Table 1. Xiong (2014)’s classification of translation strategies and translation methods 

Translation Strategy Translation Method 

foreignization zero translation 
transliteration 
word-for-word translation 
literal translation 

domestication liberal translation (paraphrase, idiomatic translation) 
imitation (addition, omission) 
variation translation 
recreation 

3.1 Literal Translation 
Literal translation requires the translator to follow the structure of the source text (ST) and translate ST without adding or 
omitting any information. By so doing, both the content and form of ST can be retained, in particular the metaphors, 
imagery, and ethnic and local characteristics. Translators using literal translation do not replace the words and rhetoric (e.g., 
metaphor) of ST with the equivalent or similar ones in the target language, whereas they are allowed to change the lexical-
syntactic structure of ST so that the target text (TT) will be comprehensible (Xiong, 2014). 
Literal translation is generally considered foreignization-oriented (Xiong, 2014). Readers usually find TT translated through 
literal translation hard to understand because the meaning of some expressions is not fully communicated as demonstrated 
in Examples 1 and 2. 

Example 1 
ST: 2022

ST in pinyin: shǒu zài “wén zǐ lóng juǎn fēng” guó dù mǎ lā wéi de yī xiàn tuán duì, bāng zhù kè hù jiě jué jīng yíng 
kùn nán, huò dé gāo dù rèn kě. 

TT: In Malawi, the field team earned recognition for helping our customers overcome operational difficulties in the 
middle of mosquito tornadoes. (NYM for 2022) 

Example 2 
ST:  2017  
ST in pinyin: yī qiè gōng zuò yào wéi rào zhòng liáng shi, dǎ liáng shi, tí shēng tǔ rǎng féi lì. 
TT: All managers must focus on creating value for customers, and work to “grow our crops, harvest the gains, and 

fertilize the soil for future business growth”. (NYM for 2017) 
The TT of “ /wén zi lóng juǎn fēng” in Example 1 and “ /zhòng liáng shi, dǎ 
liáng shi, tí shēng tǔ rǎng féi lì” in Example 2 are confusing if the readers have little knowledge about Chinese. “

/wén zi lóng juǎn fēng” in Example 1 functions as an adjective for describing Malawi across which a massive number of 
mosquitoes spread. If translated as “mosquito tornadoes”, however, it will be counted as “tornadoes composed of 
mosquitoes” literally, resulting in misunderstandings. “ /zhòng liáng shi, dǎ liáng shi, tí 
shēng tǔ rǎng féi lì” in Example 2 was a slogan commonly chanted in China between the 1950s and 1970s when crop 
production was prioritized. Ren Zhengfei, president of Huawei, who grew up in the sixties and founded Huawei years later, 
used the slogan figuratively to encourage employees to enhance performance and improve management on many occasions, 
as a result of which the slogan has become part of the organizational culture of Huawei. The TT of Example 2 fails to 
convey the meaning of ST considering that the metaphors of “ /liáng shi” and “ /tǔ rǎng féi lì” are not 
explained.  
Foreignization-oriented as it is, literal translation may not cause trouble for the readers when the syntactic structure of ST is 
adapted to that of the target language. 

Example 3 
ST:  2022  
ST in pinyin: dào zǔ qiě cháng, xíng zé jiāng zhì, xíng ér bú chuò wèi lái kě qī. 
TT: The road ahead is long and hard. As long as we press ahead, we will reach our destination. (NYM for 2022) 



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“ /dào zǔ qiě cháng” in Example 3 is an expression from Who Is She?, a song created in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty 
and collected in The Book of Songs, meaning that there is a long and difficult road ahead. “ /xíng zé jiāng zhì” is 
derived from an article titled Cultivate Yourself written by Xunzi, a famous philosopher in ancient China, meaning that we 
will eventually reach our destination as long as we keep going.  
The TT of Example 3 is appreciated because it expresses the meaning of ST not only faithfully but also fluently. May it be 
not neatly and nicely structured as the ST, it is comprehensible and serves the purpose of communication and cultural 
exchange despite the differences in ways of thinking in Chinese and English. 
3.2 Liberal Translation 
Unlike literal translation, liberal translation believes that TT should communicate the message of ST to readers naturally 
and fluently without much emphasis on form. As a domestication-oriented method, liberal translation centers more on the 
deeper meaning and cultural connotation of certain words rather than the grammar of the source language. Two types of 
liberal translation are widely employed, i.e., paraphrase and idiomatic translation (Xiong, 2014). 
3.2.1 Paraphrase 
Translators using paraphrase interpret the ST while not replacing the expressions of the ST with the idioms of the target 
language. Paraphrase is more likely used to translate the expressions related to ancient texts, poems, or historical figures in 
the source language because the meaning of these expressions will not be communicated accurately if translated literally. 
Examples 6 and 7 demonstrate how paraphrase is used. 

Example 6 
ST: 2020  
ST in pinyin: xiá lù xiāng féng yǒng zhě shèng. 
TT: Fortune favors the bold. (NYM for 2020) 
Example 7 
ST: 2019
ST in pinyin: tōng guò kǎo shì kǎo hé lái táo tài “nán guō xiān shēng” …… 
TT: We must use our examination and appraisal systems to weed out the experts who are no longer qualified. (NYM 

for 2019) 
“ /xiá lù xiāng féng yǒng zhě shèng” in Example 6 is a famous saying from The Art of War, which 
originally means that only the brave will win in the battlefield. “ /nán guō xiān shēng” in Example 7 is a name in 
Chinese for those people who are unqualified but assume important positions. Although Chinese readers are familiar with 
these expressions, readers who know little about Chinese culture may find them too obscure to be understood if no 
explanations are offered. 
Apart from the information related to ancient texts, poems, or historical figures, paraphrase is also employed in translating 
elliptical sentences which are common in Chinese. Example 8 shows how paraphrase helps explain the elliptical sentences. 

Example 8 
ST:  2020  
ST in pinyin: yào shí xiàn cháng tài huà de “néng shàng néng xià” …… 
TT: Promotion and demotion is a fact of life for managers. This needs to be codified and incorporated into day-to-day 

operations. (NYM for 2020) 
Elliptical sentences are common in language use. The reasons can be both subjective as in expressing ideas as economically 
as possible and objective as in making expressions brief and concise with the help of various contextual factors (Chen, 
2005). Nevertheless, Chinese readers immersed in a high-context society depend more on contextual factors than English 
readers who belong to a low-context culture, as a result of which Chinese readers are more likely to understand such 
expressions as “ /néng shàng néng xià” and paraphrase is necessary for English readers. 
3.2.2 Idiomatic Translation 
Idiomatic translation, unlike paraphrase, refers to borrowing similar expressions from the target language. As a 
domestication-oriented method, idiomatic translation not only makes the TT native but also serves the purpose of 
communication by borrowing equivalent or similar expressions from the target language. Idiomatic translation is one of the 
most effective ways to translate idioms as illustrated in Example 9. 

Example 9 



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ST: 2017
ST in pinyin: kēng qiāng mó lì yǒng liàng jiàn, xióng xīn zhuàng zhì zài xiàng qián. 
TT: Moving forward, we need to hone our skills, step up to the plate, and aim for the stars. (NYM for 2017) 

Two English idioms are used to help English readers better understand “ /xióng xīn zhuàng zhì zài xiàng 
qián”. The idiom “step up to the plate” originally means that “(for a batter in baseball) to move near home plate in 
preparation for striking the ball when it is pitched” and is figuratively used as “to move into a position where one is ready to 
do a task” while the other idiom “aim for the stars” means “aspire to something” or “set one’s goals high”. The meaning of 
the two English idioms used is consistent with the ST “ /xióng xīn zhuàng zhì zài xiàng qián” both literally 
and figuratively. 
3.3 Imitation  
Imitation means that the translator “assumes the liberty, not only to vary from the words and sense, but to forsake them both 
as he sees occasion; and taking only some general hints from the original, to run division on the groundwork” (Dyrden, 
2006: 172). Translators using imitation either add more information to the target text or omit unimportant information and 
only translate the key information (Xiong, 2014).  
3.3.1 Addition 
People from different cultures express the same ideas differently due to differences in terms of wording, grammar, and 
syntactic rules. In order to make TT fluent and communicative, translators need to enrich the content of the ST by finding 
out the underlying meaning of certain words and adding extra information to the TT. Examples 10 and 11 are two cases of 
addition. 

Example 10 
ST:  2022  
ST in pinyin: guǎn lǐ zhě hé zhuān jiā yào zhǔ dòng hé xīn yuán gōng duō hē kā fēi, bāng zhù tā men kāi kuò yǎn jiè. 
TT: Managers and experts should sit down more often with new employees - have some coffee, chat, and broaden their 

horizons. (NYM for 2022) 
People in China, a high-context society, tend to express their ideas implicitly. Since many aspects of cultural behavior are 
not made explicit in Chinese society, Chinese people are very sensitive to implicit messages and have learned how to 
interpret implicit messages accurately from an early age. For instance, Chinese readers can quickly understand the implied 
meaning of “ /duō hē kā fēi” (have some coffee) in Example 10, i.e., “chat and communicate with each other”. 
English readers from a low-context culture, however, will not understand the connection between “have some coffee” and 
“broaden their horizons” unless the implicit message “chat and communicate with each other” is added to the target text. 

Example 11 
ST:  2020  
ST in pinyin: tè bié gǎn xiè nà xiē fèn zhàn zài bǔ dòng yī xiàn de yuán gōng jí jiā shǔ! 
TT: And in particular, my special thanks to our employees in the front lines who have been working day and night to 

patch up the holes in this embattled aircraft of ours, and to their families who have stood by their side. (NYM for 
2020) 

The translation of “ /bǔ dòng yī xiàn” in Example 11 fully expresses the figurative meaning of the ST. “
/bǔ dòng yī xiàn” is used to describe that employees of Huawei, not feeling discouraged, worked together to weather the 
difficult times when Huawei was included in the Entity List by the United States in 2019 and many parts of its business 
were affected. “ /dòng” (hole) is therefore a metaphor for the ongoing or potential problems or difficulties Huawei 
encounters since 2019. Adding “in this embattled aircraft of ours” in the TT enables the English readers to deduce the 
implied meaning of “ /bǔ dòng yī xiàn” even though the metaphor “ /dòng” is translated literally. 
3.3.2 Omission 
Omission refers to deleting some expressions that do not comply with the mental and linguistic traditions of the target 
language. The purposes of deleting some expressions are principally to keep the TT concise and intuitive, to highlight the 
facts and key information, and to conform to the cultural values of the source language and the linguistic structure of the 
target language, etc. (Lu, 2013). Omission is used in Example 12. 

Example 12 
ST: 2019  2020  



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ST in pinyin: bú jīng yī fān hán chè gǔ, zěn dé méi huā pū bí xiāng. 2019 nián, duì huá wéi lái shuō shì jí qí bú píng 
fán de yī nián …… 

TT: 2019 was an extraordinary year for Huawei. (NYM for 2020) 
In Chinese culture, poems are often used by leaders as the opening lines of their speeches because it is believed that poems 
reflect the social and spiritual life of human beings. “ /méi huā” (plum blossoms), regarded as a symbol of Chinese 
national spirit because it stands proudly against the snow and frost and flowers in bitterly cold winter (Yang, 2005), have 
long been admired and praised by poets. The difficult times starting from May 2019 is virtually a “bitterly cold winter” for 
Huawei when they are forbidden to use the GMS services of Google, Advanced RISC Machine, American chips, related 
technologies, etc. In the Chinese NYM for 2020, Xu Zhijun, Huawei’s rotating chairman, used the plum blossoms to 
encourage Huawei’s employees to overcome difficulties and aspire to something great. However, the poems concerning 
plum blossoms have been deleted from the English version considering that no special symbolic meaning has been imparted 
on plum blossoms in English culture and that poems are rarely used as opening lines in English culture. 
Differences in rhetoric use is another reason for using omission. Consider the following example: 

Example 13 
ST: 2020

ST in pinyin: gè jí gàn bù yào yǐ gōng sī dà jú wéi zhòng, shàng huǒ xiàn, xià zhàn háo, dào yè wù zuì xū yào de dì 
fāng, dào jiān kǔ qū yù zuò zhàn. 

TT: Managers at all levels need to put company interests above personal gain and go where they are needed most, 
including hardship regions. (NYM for 2020) 

As a type of human speech, NYM has an illocutionary force that exerts an impact on the audience. The speaker delivering 
the speech will manage to influence the audience’s emotions in order to persuade them to accept his/her opinion. In the 
Chinese context, the speaker will emphasize the common ground, such as values mutually accepted, emotions experienced 
commonly and so on, between himself/herself through using exaggeration to help establish or enhance mutual trust. “

, /shàng huǒ xiàn, xià zhàn háo” (“head to the front and fight in trenches” literally) in Example 13, like “ , 
/shàng dāo shān, xià huǒ hǎi” (“head to the mountain of knives and jump into the sea of fire” literally), is a 

frequently used expression in Chinese to show how determined a person is. In the English context, however, omission is 
used properly in Example 13 considering that what the ST means has been communicated and that the purpose of narrowing 
the distance with the audience by emphasizing common ground has been served. 
4. Concluding Remarks
The current study investigates the translation strategies and translation methods used in Huawei’s New Year messages sent 
from 2017 to 2022 from the perspective of domestication and foreignization under the framework of Xiong (2014)’s 
classification. Results suggest that three translation methods are employed, namely literal translation, liberal translation, and 
imitation. Literal translation, as discussed in the current study, is foreignization-oriented and makes it difficult for target 
readers to understand the target texts since it retains the expressions that are unique in the source language. Liberal 
translation and imitation are domestication-oriented and therefore facilitate readers’ understanding of the source text.  
What should be noted is that neither domestication nor foreignization can be labeled as “good” or “bad” in its nature. 
Deciding which one to be adopted and advocated depends on the specific conditions and the purpose of the translation.  
Translators are expected to employ various methods and techniques flexibly in order to better serve the purpose of the 
translation. In a word, domestication and foreignization are compatible with each other rather than mutually exclusive. 
There are some limitations in the current study. The first limitation is that the texts used in the study are relatively 
insufficient, resulting in somewhat subjective and incomprehensive analysis. Second, the important role of readers and their 
perceptions are left understudied in the current study. Nevertheless, the current study is believed to shed light on future 
studies on NYM. 
References 
Alikberova, A. R., Vukadinovich, S. I., & Nurmieva, R. R. (2015). New Year Address as a genre of political discourse: 

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