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ors are all converted to sense, to more general expressions, "family scandal" (家丑) ,"a disappointment" (令人扫兴的人) and "a wealthy family"(富贵之家) which are abstract concepts rather than concrete images. Snell Horn by is right in saying that "as an abstract concept, metaphor might be universal; in its co ncrete realization however, being closely linked with sensuous perception and culture-bound value judgments, it is undoubtedly complicated by language-specific idiosyncrasies" (1988: 62-3). The metaphor in Example 9 is the same as that in Example 8, but is treated differently. Actually, there has been some arguments about the translation of this metaphorical phrase. In an article written in 1981, Feng Shine says that if the English idiom "skeleton in the cupboard" is translated literally into "衣柜里的骷髅, the Chinese reader might not understand what it means, so he suggested to render it to sense. In another article written later in the same year, Xu Shigu (徐世谷) does not subscribe to Feng's opinion. He argues that if the first translator of the metaphor "the crocodile's tears" thought in the same way as Feng, the Chinese reader would not have been able to understand the image, neither could the expression be able to get into the Chinese vocabulary. Xu proposed translating it literally plus meaning or explanation. But it took a long time for people to accept the "skeleton" image: In the English-Chinese Dictionary (unabridged) , the standard dictionary of this kind in China, the translation of the metaphor is nearly the same as Feng's. It was not until 1992 had the "the skeleton" image been directly brought into the Chinese culture, although with a brief interpretation to reveal its implied meaning (see Example 9).The translation of "To carry coals to Newcastle" indicates another common problem. Zhang and his colleagues translate this metaphor literally into “运煤到纽卡?quot; and then add the referential meaning 多此一举” (making an unnecessary move). Still they assume that it can not be understood completely because the reader may not know what "Newcastle" means, so they suggest making a note to identify this place rich in coal. In the last two examples, we see that "He who keeps company with the wolf will learn to howl" is turned into "近朱者赤，近墨者黑" (He who touches vermilion will be reddened, and he who deals with ink will be blackened); "Great men are not always wise" becomes "人有失手日，马有失蹄时" (Men will make mistakes, horses all stumble). There is a change of image and references in both translations. Antithetical couplets are a special feature in the Chinese culture. When the Chinese couplets are used to render the English proverbs, the translated version often bring in more images than the original although the philosophy of the proverb remains the same. 4.Findings and implications Are SL culture specific expressions replaced purely and simply or are they more often than not retained in Chinese translations? My investigation shows neither. From the above examples of metaphor translation and analysis, we can see that methods 1 and 3 ( literal translation; literal translation plus sense and explanation) are practiced with the concept of foreign inaction. The translator "deliber ately breaks target conventions by retaining something of the foreignness of the original" (Shuttle worth &Cowie, 1997:59). The translator’s choice, in Venetia’s words, is an ethno-deviant pressure on target language values "to register the linguistic and