Zhou Mingwei: cultural differences cause misunderstanding
- By Zhang Rui, Wu Qiongjing
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 14, 2015
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Political advisor Zhou Mingwei, a member of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, speaks to China.org.cn reporters in Beijing on March 10, 2015. [China.org.cn] |
These stories show that cultural differences may cause misunderstandings, or even worse, they may cause bias and demonization of some issues.
"Don't make your ideas and actions unacceptable to the international community from the very beginning. We should consider people's cultural backgrounds when we tell them stories and translate in order to explain ourselves and our policies, systems and principles better," Zhou said.
The political advisor said the annual two sessions of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference provide a very important opportunity for the rest of the world to learn about China's politics, economy and culture, so it is a very important time to send voices that tell good stories about China out into the world. "Attention from the international community and the close relationship between China and international society have brought us new challenges," he said, pointing out that translators should not only have great translating skills but also have a certain amount of knowledge about China's national conditions and politics.
"We also have to find out how better to target audiences in foreign countries by learning more about their needs, interests and focuses. Otherwise we will just be telling stories to ourselves," he said.
Zhou suggested building an ongoing translation system for the study, publication and consultation of translations of China's significant political documents.
At the same time, the Internet and social media also pose challenges to China's overseas publicity. "Many interested individuals do translation themselves whenever big events happen. The development of new media and the mass participation that it allows create a positive external environment and more translation resources. We should explore the advantages of translation and communication in new media while gathering the best translation talents to study, publish and consult translations of political keywords for government work reports. This will make our content intended for international communication more powerful, influential, authoritative and persuasive."
