In the midsummer, about 170 students from the national translation and education circles and 24 well-known translators and educators gathered in the Academy of Military Sciences of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in Beijing for a nearly militarized academic confrontation and teaching exchange. In a short period of ten days, the students were ready and in high spirits, while the teachers were "fighting to stop them and covering them"... This new approach, which is totally different from the traditional academic research and teaching model, has injected a new concept into the Chinese translation and teaching circles.
1、 On Translation Studies
What is the essence of academic research on translation? This question naturally reminds us of the famous academic article "The Nature of Academy". The sadness that the author described in the article imposed on the academic by various social strata is also vaguely discernible in our traditional academic paradigm. What should academics pay attention to? What trend should academic research lead? How can academics break through the barriers of the secular world and achieve positive results? This is a problem that people who really love learning pay attention to. In the course of this workshop, the Chinese translation colleagues made a unique interpretation of these issues.
As Huang Youyi, Sun Chengtang, the leaders of China Translators Association, and Yang Ping, the executive deputy editor in chief of China Translation magazine, advocated at the opening ceremony, this seminar focuses on "comprehensively improving the quality of translators", "reforming the thinking mode", and "throwing bricks and introducing jade"! This idea was soon confirmed in the report of the speaker, Mr. Xu Jun. Mr. Xu did not elaborate on how to tailor the words and sentences in his translation of Red and Black, but made a macro analysis of translation, translatology and translation criticism from the perspective of "tradition and innovation". With his own experience, the doctoral advisor from Nanjing University also explained how to guide students and the academic community into high-level academic research and international exchanges as a tutor of translation studies. Professor Xu Jun is an expert mainly engaged in the research and teaching of French Chinese translation. This time, he and his colleague Professor Liu Heping appeared on the platform mainly focusing on English Chinese translation. This arrangement itself is meaningful: as the organizer, the editorial department of China Translation of the China Association of Translators aims to break the boundaries of discipline research and pursue an academic effect of "reaching the same goal by different routes".
"All roads lead to the same goal" is also reflected in the choice of teachers and topics in this workshop. From the perspective of teachers, among the speakers were Cheng Zhenqiu and Xu Yuanchong, famous translators in the translation field in their eighties, Sun Zhili, Zhuang Yichuan and Xu Yanan, translators in their prime of life, and many famous young and middle-aged scholars in their thirties and forties. Heroes from all walks of life have different schools and brilliant views. The topic of the speech is from macro to micro, from theory to practice, from translation to interpretation, from literary translation to diplomatic translation, political translation, legal translation, showing multi-level, multi perspective and high-grade academic research characteristics.
At the macro level, the discipline construction and theoretical research of translatology represent the mainstream. Professor Gu Zhengkun from Peking University introduced his General Theory of Translation to the students in a "point to point" way, aiming to guide students into the main aspects of macro and micro translation studies. Professor Tan Zaixi of Hong Kong Baptist University started from the western translation model, analyzed the strength and weakness of the western translation model, and looked forward to the development of translation. Professor Wang Ning of Tsinghua University, based on the current situation of translation and its research, tries to redefine and position translation in the era of globalization, and describes the role of translation in the process of globalization. Wang Ning believes that "translation is now undergoing a transition: from literal translation at the linguistic level to interpretation and representation at the cultural level." This echoes the views of the Western cultural school. As for the enlightenment of western translation theories to translators, Professor Zhang Nanfeng of Lingnan University in Hong Kong, taking Vermeer's Skopos Theory and Even Zohar's Multi system Theory as the lead, introduced various theories that are beneficial to translation theory research or practical research from one point of view to the other; In combination with the topic of "Three Issues in English Chinese Literary Translation: Dramatic Language, Cultural Exclusivity and Pun", Mr. Zhang made a new annotation and deduction for the combination of theory and practice in translation research and translation teaching. In terms of interdisciplinary research, Shen Dan, a doctoral advisor at Peking University, presented her achievements in literary stylistics and novel translation research to the students. Starting from the general situation of the development of western stylistics, Professor Shen made a theoretical and practical analysis of the treatment of register and false image equivalence at the story level in literary translation, and explained the main role of literary stylistics in the study of novel translation. Wang Dongfeng, Gao Zu of Professor Shen Dan, pointed out a phenomenon worthy of deep consideration in literary translation: the conflict of consciousness between translators and writers by analyzing the stylistic deformation in literary translation. Professor Wang believes that "both the examples in the translated text and the words of the translators clearly show that the language choices of the translators are different from those of the writers to a large extent. The former's language strategies have an information orientation, while the latter's is a poetic orientation." Therefore, he questioned the traditional information oriented or semantic oriented translation strategies. This multi perspective research approach provides a model for students to conduct diversified and multi-level academic exploration, which is also one of the objectives of this seminar.
Another idea embodied in academic research is to advocate resource sharing, contend with a hundred schools of thought, and bring forth new ideas, which provides a hotbed and soil for questioning academic traditions and challenging academic authority. The workshop broke the traditional pattern of 10 minute paper reading. Each speaker spent 2-4 hours to show his latest achievements to the students in the way of handouts, blackboard writing or projection and explanation, interspersed with questions, speeches, demonstrations and other modes for discussion. Students can not only share the results of these scientific research with teachers, but also cultivate the ability to think independently. In such discussions, new academic views are growing. For example, Professor Liu Shicong of Nankai University has put forward a quite unique view on the issue of "foreignization" and "domestication" in translation. Mr. Liu believes that as far as English Chinese translation is concerned, "domestication" should be advocated, which has nothing to do with the strength of English and Chinese culture, does not mean that Chinese culture should accommodate English culture, nor does it have anything to do with politics and economy, but rather symbolizes our pursuit of English standard language, which is a pure language processing. This view puzzled the students: if it was pure language processing, why should the strategy of E-C translation be different from that of C-E translation? On the issue of cultural turn in translation, Dr. Sun Yifeng of Lingnan University in Hong Kong believes that Andrew Lefevere, the representative of the cultural school of translation, exaggerated the role of ideology in the process of translation rewriting. He believed that we should take a comprehensive and prudent attitude towards the absorption of different theories. Sun Yifeng has a negative attitude towards the "tail chasing" phenomenon that many mainland students show in their academic research, such as "learning from others" and "following others". Therefore, he advocates that the traction of academic and education should focus on cultivating independent thinking mode. In the process of this great discussion, the most "hot" debate came from two famous poets in poetry translation - Xu Yuanchong and Jiang Feng. Taking cloning technology, a great achievement that may transform the future human face in the 20th century, as the starting point, Mr. Xu elaborated his "cloning theory of literary translation - the theory of faithfulness, expressiveness and excellence". Mr. Xu firmly believes that the "three beauties" translation, which is rich in sound, meaning and shape, is the translation of "faithfulness, expressiveness and excellence". On the other hand, Mr. Jiang Feng criticized Mr. Xu Yuanchong's "new translation theory" with the theme of "poetry translation, similarity in form and spirit: a little necessary common sense". This boiling scene gives translation colleagues a chance to witness another scene in the academic world. It vividly shows that academic research is not always "a veil of tenderness", but sometimes "smoke of gunpowder"! The question is, what kind of academic attitude will the academic community take to interpret and examine the academic variety. In this regard, we may get some inspiration from the report of Hong Kong scholar Zhou Zhaoxiang on "Translation and Life".
2、 On Translation Teaching
Translation teaching, especially interpretation teaching, has always been a weak link in China's translation field. In order to change this situation, the lectures on translation teaching covered 1/5 of the courses in this workshop. It covers the main teaching models in Hong Kong and the mainland. Among them, the "Translation Teaching Model of Hong Kong Baptist University" introduced by Mr. Zhou Zhaoxiang is quite different from the translation teaching in the mainland. Hong Kong's translation curriculum design is highly targeted, focusing on market demand and practical ability training. For the theoretical penetration in teaching, there are different theoretical education according to different training objectives and different levels. The curriculum has been systematized. In terms of educational model, we also encourage students to explore and acquire knowledge by themselves. This model provides a different frame of reference for the mainland teaching circles, which always advocate "teacher centered".
In terms of interpretation teaching, Dr. Liu Heping, from Beijing Language and Culture University, illustrated her unique understanding of interpretation teaching based on her new book "Interpretation Skills, Thinking Science and Interpretation Reasoning Teaching Method". Liu Heping believes that the current translation studies in China remain static, that is, the study of translation results, ignoring the dynamic study, that is, the study of translation process. To uncover the mystery of translation process and teach it to students, we must carefully study the dynamic process of translation. Therefore, research methods and teaching methods are very important. Liu Heping also took the vivid interpretation demonstration of three groups of students as an example to illustrate that the most important thing for teachers is to study the students' thinking process of understanding and accepting meaning, rather than the simple equivalence between words and sentences. Her teaching concept of "fishing raw fish" has attracted extensive attention of interpreters and teaching workers.
In addition, during the alternate demonstration of Gu Xin from Beijing Foreign Studies University, Du Yunde from Canada, and the demonstration of the Powerpoint software package from Feng Zhilin from Guangzhou University of Foreign Studies, we had the opportunity to learn about the interpretation teaching mode of major foreign language colleges in China, and were pleased to find that statistical methods and multimedia teaching methods have gradually penetrated into translation teaching and research.
3、 Thinking in Feedback
Another idea brought about by this workshop is to guide learning with teaching, assist teaching with learning, and look forward to the future. In order to find problems in advance and constantly improve the way of running a school in the future, the organizer sent a "questionnaire" to each student from the very beginning, mainly focusing on translation teaching and the mode of running the class this time. This design does not coincide with the fact that most of the students are college teachers.
There were about 170 participants in this workshop, among whom associate professors and lecturers from universities all over the country accounted for the majority, and a few foreign affairs translators from all walks of life and doctoral and postgraduate students in school. 125 valid questionnaires were returned. Although not 100% accurate, this feedback figure is enough to represent the main phenomenon.
According to the distribution of statistical data, two thirds of teachers still focus on translation teaching, and interpretation has not yet achieved an equal share. As far as the quality of teachers is concerned, 50% of them have been teaching for more than 8 years, but 96% of them have never participated in translation teaching training. The issue of teachers' knowledge updating and training has become a top priority. The curriculum of translation is unbalanced and the class hours are too few. The proportion of less than 4 hours, 6 hours and 8 hours per week is 4:2:4. In terms of translation teaching methods, it is still lagging behind. Although 42% of the people said that tape, video tape, VCD, powerpoint or multimedia classroom were gradually introduced into teaching, 58% of the people said that they had never used audio-visual equipment. When asked "What are the main problems you encounter in translation teaching practice?", more than 90% of the students answered that they lack advanced textbooks that reflect the requirements of the new era and combine theory with practice. Students generally report that they still use textbooks sold in the market, such as the English Chinese Translation Course and the Interpretation Course published since the 1980s, and the proportion of the two is 2:1. This situation is consistent with the problems reflected in the first national translation teaching seminar in Nanjing in 1996. This shows that in the past five years, the construction of textbooks has not been put on the agenda in China's translation and teaching circles. This abnormal "persistence" has aroused the great attention of the editorial department of China Translation, which is planning to find competent experts to compile new textbooks in the near future to fill this gap for the Chinese academic community. I believe that the enthusiastic academic community will work together to help this effort to be forged at an early date.
The curtain of this workshop was grandly opened in the sound of the bugle of the Academy of Military Sciences, and then slowly landed in the sound of the bugle. For the well planned organizer, the editorial department of China Translation, they are thinking about how the new training will be more effective and considerate. For the participants, the rich and wonderful, compact and orderly, pragmatic and efficient workshop brought them unforgettable memories. Yin Xiaohong from Hunan believes that this study is like "a big discussion on many theories and practices in the translation field standing on the shoulders of a giant". Cai Ruoheng from Guangzhou said in very emotional language: "It tastes great! He has the feeling of 'hating late' and 'winning ten years'. Of course, he would like to come again if he has the opportunity in the future!" Ren Jingsheng, from Hefei, compared this gathering of "high taste" and "large capacity" to a "exquisite spiritual feast"... We have every reason to believe that the editorial department of China Translation, which is determined to be a "qualified wedding dress for Chinese translation", will certainly weave this wedding dress more and more beautiful. Just like the "China Knot" given by the students to the staff of the editorial department who persist in fighting with illness, the new training course will surely weave a newer and more beautiful China complex with the development of the times and the changes of the years.