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School of Chinese Seminar

Achieving Intercultural Communication in Translation

Speaker: Prof. Jing HAN (IAC, Western Sydney University)    

Moderator: Prof. Dingkun WANG (HKU)

Date & Time: March 14, 2024 (Thu) 16:30-18:00pm

Language: English

Venue: CRT-7.30, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

https://hku.zoom.us/j/95838618805?pwd=bWpQdDdZeTIwQ0VkMTVJNFd6cFA0Zz09 

Meeting ID: 958 3861 8805

Password: 020653

Abstract:

This talk builds on the premises that translation is first and foremost a communication, and furthermore an intercultural communication. Simply translating a source language text into target language text does not necessarily lead to communication, and communication is not a given. With reference to Australian-Chinese cultural exchange, the speaker will showcase how communication takes place in literary and audio-visual translations.

Furthermore, the speaker will highlight the importance of audience design to communicative quality. Essentially, the source-language audience’s cognitive and cultural contexts do not match those of the target-language audience. Therefore, the onus is on the translator to identify the mismatch or the missing context and provide a cognitive environment for their target audience to enable them to interpret the message understood by the source language audience.

About the Speaker:

Professor Jing Han is the Director of Institute for Australia and Chinese Arts and Culture (IAC) and Professor of translation and interpreting in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University (WSU). She has had over 23 years of subtitling experiences and leading the world renowned subtitling unit for its highest standards of subtitled programs of over 100 languages on Special Broadcasting Service TV and online. She herself subtitled over 300 Chinese-language films including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lust, Caution, Hero, Not One Less, Let the Bullet Fly, 1942, Ash Is the Purest White, Still Life, etc.. Prof. Han was the leading subtitler of the Chinese reality show If You Are The One, which had been broadcast consecutively for seven years on SBS TV, the longest showing non-English TV series in Australian broadcasting history. Prof. Han is also a published literary translator who translated a modern Chinese classic Educated Youth by award winning author Ye Xin, published in Australia in 2016 and her Chinese translation of the Miles Franklin Award winning novel Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko was published by China Writers Publishing House in 2022. She is currently translating Where They Lie, a literary thriller by the award-winning Irish writer Claire Coughlan. The Chinese translation is to be published by China Writers Publishing House in 2024.

Notice:

1) The seminar will be conducted primarily in a face-to-face mode; Those who cannot attend the seminar in-person could apply for online participation (via Zoom) with justifications;

2) All those who would like to attend the seminar are required to register online (Click HERE) on a first-come, first-served basis;

3) Email of confirmation will be sent to the registered email addresses and participants have to show the screenshot or print-out version of the email for entry of the seminar venue;

4) Walk-in or late-comers will not be allowed for entry of the seminar venue unless situation allows.

ALL are welcome*

*Pre-registration (Click HERE) is requested.