The Translating China Research Group at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University is a cross-departmental and cross-school research platform examining how translation shapes the interpretation, circulation and reception of Chinese culture and knowledge. Our research spans literature, thought and cultural heritage; film, performance and multimodal translation; and technology, institutions and the circulation of knowledge.
We connect collaborative scholarship with translator education and professional practice in the age of AI, examining how translation shapes cultural recognition and identity and how translators exercise ethical judgement in representing China to new audiences.
The group is convened by Dr Yangyang Long, Associate Professor at XJTLU and Associate Editor of The Translator, one of the world’s leading journals in translation and interpreting studies.
Phase One Scholarly Exchange
Our 2024 workshop series established a forum for sustained discussion across these fields. Researchers and translation practitioners examined subjects ranging from Chinese classics and contemporary fiction to film, theatre, interpreting and translation technologies. These discussions brought different methods and forms of expertise to a shared question: how do translators’ choices shape what audiences can understand and experience of China?
The series provided a setting for colleagues to present work in progress and examine the relationships between cultural interpretation, the conditions of translation and audience reception. Its programme records the breadth of inquiry underpinning the group’s collaborative work.
Phase Two Collaborative Publication
The next phase of this work takes shape in China in Translation: Mediating Culture, Technology, and Global Exchange, edited by Dr Yangyang Long and Dr Wan Hu and forthcoming with Routledge in the Communicating China series. The volume examines translation as a practice that shapes how Chinese culture and knowledge circulate and acquire meaning across different settings.
Its studies address Chinese philosophy and wuxia fiction alongside performance, film, academic translation and diplomatic discourse. Together, they investigate the role of translators, institutions and representational choices in communicating China, bringing translation into direct conversation with questions of knowledge, power and cultural reception.
Our investigation of cultural judgement extends into research on how translators develop that judgement. A current project led by Dr Long has secured funding through the nationwide competitive call for the 13th China Foreign Language Education Fund (中国外语教育基金). Entitled AI-Enabled Development of the ‘Translating China’ Curriculum Cluster and the Cultivation of International Communication Competence, the project carries the reference ZGWYJYJJ13A006.
The project investigates how AI can support curriculum development while strengthening students’ capacity to interpret Chinese cultural material for audiences beyond its original context. It places the evaluation of AI outputs, the justification of translation choices and responsibility to audiences within a connected programme of teaching research. The ‘Translating China’ curriculum cluster provides a setting in which to examine how these capacities develop through practice.
Digital Gallery: Translating China gives public form to student inquiry. Led by Dr Long, the online exhibition presents selected projects developed in TRI307 Translating China: Culture and History. Students rework their research and translation decisions into video and other visual presentations for audiences beyond the classroom.
The featured projects explore Mulan’s representation, the localisation of a Silk Road board game, and voice and selfhood in The Little Monsters of Lang Lang Mountain. Across these projects, students make and explain choices about cultural framing, medium and audience. The gallery provides an existing platform for connecting translation education with public cultural interpretation.
Engagement with professional translators brings the decisions of cultural mediation into the classroom. Invited by Dr Long, Gigi Chang, a translator of Jin Yong’s fiction, has shared her experience of literary translation and international publishing with XJTLU students. Classroom activities have included pitching translations in a simulated editorial setting and receiving immediate feedback, giving students opportunities to consider how textual interpretation meets editorial expectations and readers’ needs.
Long and Chang are also joint authors of Translating Wuxia for New Audiences in the 21st Century, a chapter in the forthcoming volume. These contributions connect the group’s research questions with the practical conditions under which Chinese culture reaches new audiences. The activity was also covered by Hong Kong broadcaster TVB.
The Translating China Research Group at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University is a cross-departmental and cross-school research platform examining how translation shapes the interpretation, circulation and reception of Chinese culture and knowledge. Our research spans literature, thought and cultural heritage; film, performance and multimodal translation; and technology, institutions and the circulation of knowledge.
We connect collaborative scholarship with translator education and professional practice in the age of AI, examining how translation shapes cultural recognition and identity and how translators exercise ethical judgement in representing China to new audiences.
The group is convened by Dr Yangyang Long, Associate Professor at XJTLU and Associate Editor of The Translator, one of the world’s leading journals in translation and interpreting studies.
Phase One Scholarly Exchange
Our 2024 workshop series established a forum for sustained discussion across these fields. Researchers and translation practitioners examined subjects ranging from Chinese classics and contemporary fiction to film, theatre, interpreting and translation technologies. These discussions brought different methods and forms of expertise to a shared question: how do translators’ choices shape what audiences can understand and experience of China?
The series provided a setting for colleagues to present work in progress and examine the relationships between cultural interpretation, the conditions of translation and audience reception. Its programme records the breadth of inquiry underpinning the group’s collaborative work.
Phase Two Collaborative Publication
The next phase of this work takes shape in China in Translation: Mediating Culture, Technology, and Global Exchange, edited by Dr Yangyang Long and Dr Wan Hu and forthcoming with Routledge in the Communicating China series. The volume examines translation as a practice that shapes how Chinese culture and knowledge circulate and acquire meaning across different settings.
Its studies address Chinese philosophy and wuxia fiction alongside performance, film, academic translation and diplomatic discourse. Together, they investigate the role of translators, institutions and representational choices in communicating China, bringing translation into direct conversation with questions of knowledge, power and cultural reception.
Explore the volume on Routledge
Research and translator education
Our investigation of cultural judgement extends into research on how translators develop that judgement. A current project led by Dr Long has secured funding through the nationwide competitive call for the 13th China Foreign Language Education Fund (中国外语教育基金). Entitled AI-Enabled Development of the ‘Translating China’ Curriculum Cluster and the Cultivation of International Communication Competence, the project carries the reference ZGWYJYJJ13A006.
The project investigates how AI can support curriculum development while strengthening students’ capacity to interpret Chinese cultural material for audiences beyond its original context. It places the evaluation of AI outputs, the justification of translation choices and responsibility to audiences within a connected programme of teaching research. The ‘Translating China’ curriculum cluster provides a setting in which to examine how these capacities develop through practice.
View the funding announcement
Digital Gallery: Translating China
Digital Gallery: Translating China gives public form to student inquiry. Led by Dr Long, the online exhibition presents selected projects developed in TRI307 Translating China: Culture and History. Students rework their research and translation decisions into video and other visual presentations for audiences beyond the classroom.
The featured projects explore Mulan’s representation, the localisation of a Silk Road board game, and voice and selfhood in The Little Monsters of Lang Lang Mountain. Across these projects, students make and explain choices about cultural framing, medium and audience. The gallery provides an existing platform for connecting translation education with public cultural interpretation.
Visit Digital Gallery: Translating China
Engagement with industry
Engagement with professional translators brings the decisions of cultural mediation into the classroom. Invited by Dr Long, Gigi Chang, a translator of Jin Yong’s fiction, has shared her experience of literary translation and international publishing with XJTLU students. Classroom activities have included pitching translations in a simulated editorial setting and receiving immediate feedback, giving students opportunities to consider how textual interpretation meets editorial expectations and readers’ needs.
Long and Chang are also joint authors of Translating Wuxia for New Audiences in the 21st Century, a chapter in the forthcoming volume. These contributions connect the group’s research questions with the practical conditions under which Chinese culture reaches new audiences. The activity was also covered by Hong Kong broadcaster TVB.