IntroductionChallenged by the rapidly evolving social contexts of contemporary globalization, translation becomes a primary vehicle for intercultural communication. Different translation strategies are used in different applicable areas. This article is aimed at analyzing the characteristics and practices of various translation strategies, which include literal translation, semantic translation, communicative translation, complication and rewriting. Literal Translation Literal translation converts the source text (ST) into the target text (TT) via word-to-word translation. Newmark (1988) conveniently explains “literal translation” as “calcus”, which is the case where the translator preserves the word order and imitates the grammatical constructions of the ST. Let's take "Come to London and see the world" as an example (see Appendix A: Advertising translation). Its corresponding literal translation is “来伦敦看世界”, which follows the structure and way of expressing the ST. However, as advertising, literal translation cannot satisfy the “appetite” of the target audience. Instead, it is usually adopted to translate educational guides or legal documents due to its greater degree of fidelity to the ST. Semantic translation Semantic translation uses contextual meaning that communicates through language. Newmark (1988) argues that “semantic translation” differs from “literal translation” only to the extent that it captures a greater aesthetic value of the ST. Following the basic principle of fidelity, it is extremely accurate. Semantic translation is generally adopted in academic and legal translations, but rarely used in business communication as it is not effective and efficient enough in providing business communications. Communicative translation...... half of the paper ......Translation). In addition to advertising translation, complication is also applied in intercultural, academic, cinematic and literary translations due to its essence of elegance.ConclusionIn conclusion, it is recognized that literal translation and semantic translation are conducted around fidelity, communicative translation and complication are implemented based on the rule of expressiveness, while rewriting pursues elegance. Each of them has its own strengths and weaknesses in different application areas. Therefore, it makes no sense to identify which of these five translation strategies is more effective or used more frequently in the real world than the others. A thorough understanding of the purpose of translation is the first and most important step of translation. Each translation strategy should be employed with caution to avoid potential communication problems.