On the afternoon of September 22nd, invited by the School of Foreign Languages, Professor Zhao Youbin, Dean of the School of Translation Studies, Ji’nan University, delivered a lecture on Jiulonghu Campus in SEU. Teachers and graduate students attended the lecture. The lecture entitled “Communication with the World through Precise Translation” centered on the following points: definition of key Chinese concepts and media of external communication; background and significance of spreading Chinese concepts; and problems with the translation of key Chinese concepts.
Prof. Zhao started with a humorous self-introduction in English, and used the translation of “洪荒之力”, the word of the year that he researched on, as the lead-in of his enlightening lecture. During his lecture, he presented his own books and calligraphy works to the teachers and students.
The lecture was composed of three parts. To begin with, Prof. Zhao exemplified how to translate the increasingly abundant neologism as there is more and more communication between China and the whole world in the context of the “Belt and Road” initiative, and illustrated the definition of key Chinese concepts and media of external communication. Then he discussed the significance of spreading Chinese concepts in terms of China’s international role and discourse power. He stressed that it was the responsibility of English educators, translators and interpreter as well as learners to fulfill this task. Lastly, based on his research on the translation of Chinese buzzwords, Prof. Zhao pointed out the limitations of translation strategies and methods and further illustrated the issue of authoritativeness of key Chinese concepts.
At the end of the lecture, Prof. Ma Dongmei, Deputy Dean of our school, commented on the lecture and expressed her gratitude to Prof. Zhao. Prof. Ma pointed out that the lecture was instrumental in that it focused on the translation of key Chinese concepts from the perspective of discourse power, which well reflected the current hot issues in research field. The lecture inspired both teachers and students present to obtain a deeper understanding about translation.
Report / Hou Xu
Photo / Ma Dongmei
