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Translation Matters Impact of two English renditions of one Chinese political text on international readers

Yong Zhong 1

1University of New South Wales, Australia

Irregular Papers

ABSTRACT

This paper begins with a brief historic review of political translation in China but its main concern is with investigating the impact of two English renditions of a text authored by a Chinese leader and widely publicised in China. One rendition had been produced for a ‘journalistic’ purpose and is seen as ‘faulty’. The other had been produced by ‘accuracy-minded’ translators and is seen as the official ‘correct’ version. The investigation was designed to address three questions. Question 1 was whether the two translations impacted differently. Question 2 was, if and where they did evoke significantly different responses, which one received a more positive response. Question 3 was on what basis the respondents formed their assessments. A number of surprise findings emerged, providing cause and evidence for reflections on some of the familiar claims made about translation.

Citation status

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