The Reception of Translated Foreign-Affairs Discourse: China’s International Communication System

Abstract

Although we know that national image can be highly dependent on the way a country’s foreign-affairs discourse is translated, the communicative effect of translations on real target readers has rarely undergone empirical scrutiny. This research reports on a quasi-experiment where 22 Australian readers were asked to rank different degrees of translator intervention in texts selected from Chinese foreign-affairs discourse. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine the readers’ textual comprehension, image of China and reading satisfaction. The readers’ evaluations were then compared with similar evaluations made by 14 Chinese institutional translators. One major finding is that ther..