Digital Gallery: Translating China
Curators
Dr Yangyang Long , Associate Professor, Department of Literary and Translation Studies
Dr Zhiwei Han, Assistant Professor, Department of Literary and Translation Studies
Featured projects
Project 1
Reinventing Mulan’s Image to the English-speaking World
Students: Tingyu Shen; Weiqi Wang
myth; gender; retranslation
Based on the legend of Hua Mulan and its modern retellings, this project examines how Mulan’s image travels into English and what gets lost when her story is filtered through simplified romantic frames. By comparing earlier translations and proposing a new feminist rendering, the project rethinks Mulan as a figure shaped by courage, restraint, inner conflict, and resistance to stereotype. It shows that translating China is not only about transmitting a famous heroine, but also about deciding which values, voices, and gendered meanings will speak to global audiences.
Project 2
Negotiating History and Play: Translating The Silk Road (Board Game) for Global Audiences
Students: WengU Iao; Yunhao Li; Zheni Yan
history; board game; localisation
Focussing on a Silk Road-themed board game, this project translates and adapts rulebook language, card text, and cultural framing for English-speaking players. Rather than treating the game as a neutral object, it asks how history, geography, and ideas of China are packaged through play. The project balances gameplay clarity with historical nuance by redesigning wording, refining explanations, and using QR-code links to extend cultural context. It shows that translating China can also mean translating through game design, where every concise phrase, label, and mechanic helps shape how global players imagine the Silk Road.
Curatorial Statement
Translating China is a student-led online gallery showcasing selected video projects from TRI307 Translating China: Culture and History in the BA Translation and Interpreting programme at XJTLU. The gallery presents translation not simply as the transfer of words, but as an act of cultural mediation through which China is reframed for new audiences, media, and platforms.
The three featured projects move from the reimagining of Mulan for English-speaking viewers, to the localisation of a Silk Road board game for global players, to a reflective exploration of voice and selfhood in The Little Monsters of Lang Lang Mountain. Together, they show students working as emerging cultural mediators: comparing versions, rethinking audience expectations, and making creative decisions about history, gender, play, identity, and representation. Hosted on the LTS website, the gallery showcases both outstanding student work and the programme’s commitment to intellectually ambitious, media-aware translation practice.