Abstract: The present paper analyzes the acceptability of literal translation in China English by using concrete examples.Literal translation plays a unique role in retaining the linguistic features of the Chinese language,in effectively reproducing the original style and in embodying the rich connotation of the Chinese culture.Literal translation should take the readers' recognition,acceptance and the context relevance as its precondition.The mechanical word-for-word translation without taking the pragmatic effect and pragmatic appropriateness into consideration can only lead to the failure of the cross-cultural communication and the readers' misunderstanding of the translated version.