Translating Chinese Political Discourse: The Case of "China Keywords"

Ping Liang

Onderzoeksoutput: PhD Thesis

Samenvatting

Chinese political discourse often sounds antiquated or “sui generis” to Western readers. As China strives to enhance its external communication in its search for discursive power, it has also placed great emphasis on translating its political discourse. Translation is expected to help promote Chinese discourse more effectively to the world by adapting to the linguistic and cultural conventions of the target readership for improved readability and acceptability. This thesis describes the role China’s official translation plays in facilitating its international publicity as a large intercultural communicative act. In its study of en_GB translations of Chinese official texts, it sets out to argue that the distinct discursive features of Chinese political discourse have posed several challenges for its translation and reception. It then investigates how these difficulties are tackled by the official translators in Chinese institutional settings. By exploring the organizational structure, translation procedure and guiding principles, it attempts to detect how official translation serves China’s international publicity at a prescriptive level. With the aim of examining the communicative effectiveness of official translation in practice, case studies are conducted on the en_GB translations of three key Chinese political concepts by the national translation project “China Keywords”. Through comparison of different translation renditions, with a particular focus on the changes made in translation strategies and effects on text readability, the study seeks to assess when and to what extent the translation adapts to the target readership and whether this contributes to increased receptivity. The result questions whether the translated discourse has actually become more adaptive to the taste of international readers. The thesis concludes by addressing the discrepancy between ideal and actual translation practice. It provides a realistic view on the part played by official translation in China’s endeavour to expand international discursive power.
Originele taal-2English
Toekennende instantie
  • Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Begeleider(s)/adviseur
  • Humblé, Philippe, Promotor
Datum van toekenning3 jul 2020
Plaats van publicatieBrussels
StatusPublished - 2020

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