Problem of Chinese Translation
The inadequacy of Chinese translation may not be intuitively true, for it is obvious that, over the years, many Western thoughts and ideas have been translated into Chinese, and books of this kind that are firmly sitting on the shelf of bookstores seem to cover a wide scope of knowledge; periodical articles on everyday desktop boldly highlight quotes from some sorts of Western thinkers. Yet, based on my decade-long observation as a serious reader in mainland China, these translations are more often than not superficially produced without sincerely delving into the essence of the original. Due to this inadequacy, most of the English-written ideas have not been effectively communicated with the Chinese readers. To support my argument, I will use examples taken from translated texts of Euro-American contemporary art in mainland China, and I will examine both the availability of ideas translations and their quality of translations.
First, according to my field research in 2010 in China, translation of art ideas is not very available in the mainstream Chinese publications today. Publications on art have rapidly increased in number in the past few years as contemporary art market is booming in mainland China. Since contemporary art is a truly global phenomenon that has less cultural boundaries, many publications introduce foreign artists and art exhibitions, especially European and American ones. Upon close look, I found very few publications actually talking about behind-the-scene ideas that are essential to contemporary art. Despite what they may claim in their titles to be in-depth reports, most contents are descriptive and factual rather than analytic and spiritual. For example, in writing about the 53rd Venice Biennale, one of the most significant events in contemporary art worldwide, there were many news reports on the event and lots of images taken from the exhibition, which admittedly are useful information, but what seem to be missing were the integral ideas behind the scene. Very few reports take the effort to seriously delve on the translation or the interpretation of artists’ original ideas.
The mainstream art media’s consistent negation of key translated ideas has big implications. In my view, the absence of ideas prompts Chinese art aficionados to read Western art via photographic hints, an attempt that potentially foster inaccurate understanding. More detrimentally, the missing focus of artistic ideas could be shaping the overall reading experience of contemporary art from intellectuality-driven to superficiality-oriented, consequently reducing Western contemporary art into a mere territory of vanity.
That said, the translations of art ideas are not completely out of sight. There are occasionally some Chinese translations on Western art history and curatorial ideas, such as college textbooks, some website forums. In this category, the quality of translation should be scrutinized. I personally think that there are good ones, such as a TV documentary called When the Louvre Meets the Forbidden City (2011), but these good ones are few and far between. I would argue that the majority are not quite sufficiently translated. As many interviewees told me, most translations are done by non-art inexperienced translators who produce simplistic word-for-word translations. I think these practices are highly problematic. Since art concept is more attitudinal than factual, these literal translations are hardly able to convey the ideas. Moreover, these translations risk missing out or distorting original ideas of art, making them illegible to read. Unfortunately, this kind of irresponsible translations has become a norm in China and repels potential readers.
Why is it that foreign art idea are either left out or insufficiently translated? Why do Chinese art media in general not take up more responsibility to translate foreign art ideas? Among many possible answers is the lack of incentive. As I was told, in mainland China, the pay for a translation is unbelievably modest. Many talented and experienced personnel are unwilling to do the job. In the wake of burgeoning art market in China, they are more attracted to the art market for better rewards. Therefore, the task of translation falls onto younger and inexperienced translators, and thus the quality of translation is unsatisfactory. Furthermore, the insufficient quality has to do with the practice of publishers, who usually pay little but impose very tight deadlines to complete with competitors, and thus lower the morale of translators.
Chinese art media in general is not adequate to connect Western art with Chinese audience, neither is direct communication. According to my personal experience as an interpreter in an art conference, I have noticed that verbal communication is difficult when it comes to abstract ideas. The English speakers are inclined to articulate the nuance of their artistic concepts, while the Chinese counterparts had hard time grasping the meaning because they are unfamiliar with the framework of Western ideas, even with the help of good interpreters. (This problem is mutual. Some English listeners sometimes misunderstand Chinese artists too because they are unfamiliar to Chinese culture.) Without some general knowledge of the ideas from other culture, international art exchange programs between China and the English world are usually less communicative than what they are desired, and in some cases, they are just a formality. This unfortunate reality calls for better translations made available to Chinese art communities.
The translational issues in contemporary art are symptomatic of a larger problem in Chinese translation in general of foreign contemporary ideas and thoughts. Let us zoom out to this larger context. Best translations of abstract ideas usually come from the insiders. For example, many modern Chinese literary works have been translated by experts in the field, many of whom have physical contact with Chinese subject matters. They are first researchers and then translators. In comparison, many young Chinese translators are, albeit exceptions, mere outsiders of their translated subjects, and few of them have personal contact with English cultures. They are first translators and then amateur researchers. Amateurism may suffice in some fields dealing with factual information, such as corporate documents, but definitely not in hard humanities, in which cultural nuance and convoluted ideas demands solid knowledge of Western school of thoughts as well as Chinese ones. The best candidates to meet this demand are arguably the Chinese who have hybrid intellectual experiences in both Chinese and the English world, and who immerse themselves in the domain of humanities studies or alike.
These ideal translators, for financial reasons as mentioned above, are less likely to do translations in China. Who seem to be more likely to get the job well done are overseas Chinese intellectuals. They are Chinese professors, students, immigrants, and visiting scholars. Chinese dissents who are well-educated bilingually are also in this category. In recent decades, the number of this group is rising in Western countries; however, the number of translations on Western humanities has not increased. In my view, there are a few reasons that have to do with the mindset of these individuals, the lack of support from the Chinese government, and the unfavourable setting of Western universities.
First, the majority of overseas Chinese students have personal preference of hard science and business over hard humanities. In many Western universities, most Chinese young talents flock to the departments such as commerce, engineering, and computer science; leaving only a few exceptions sitting lonesomely in art and literature classes. As a result, there are many acclaimed Chinese engineers, physicists, financial analysts, but very few art historians, anthropologists, or philosophers. Lopsided choices of disciplines allow little contribution to humanities.
Second, humanity studies are less likely than science and business to be supported by the mainland Chinese government. In the award list of the National Scholarship for Excellent Overseas Chinese Students (2011), offered by Chinese government, very few students are from the field of humanities. Most of them are science and business students, to whom Chinese government pays more attention. Moreover, there are no independent funds allowed in mainland China to provide alternative support to overseas Chinese students.
Lastly and most importantly, the overseas Chinese students and scholars who love humanities are channelled by the North American academic settings that are strategically selective and rigidly merit-based. These students are usually recruited to research in Chinese-related fields in Area Studies. Although it has evolved since the end of the Cold War, Area Studies remain a territory driven by certain political vest interest, and funding is allocated accordingly. In other humanities areas, funding is less generous to Chinese students. For example, in traditional Western humanities disciplines, Chinese students rarely have the opportunities to study in a funded post-graduate program. The reason is obvious. Western philosophy, for example, is densely culturally specific, in which an outsider Chinese student is largely disadvantaged to compete with his native peers for merit. Therefore, overseas Chinese scholars rarely specialize in the domain of Western humanities, and produce very few publications for Chinese readers in this field.
The North American academic setting has a consequence. While the understanding of China from North American academia is celebratorily multifaceted, the understanding of North America from Chinese intellectuals, although there are some exceptions, is made comparatively unidirectional. As a result, North America is understood disproportionately in the process of globalization by its business and technology over its integral Western humanities.
As I observe, this missing translation could potentially polarize Chinese people’s attitude towards the perceived West as all good or all bad dichotomy. In my field trip to China, I was surprised to notice the way “Western thinking” were stereotyped. Since I used to have the same stereotypes before I left China several years ago, I was able to trace the perception and discern why misunderstanding happens. Most often I arrive at the conclusion that it is because some important school of thoughts are completely taken out of context or just literally received. It is in the same measure that Chinese culture is stereotyped in North America. This mutual misunderstanding can be assuaged if there is more effective intellectual exchange in the field of humanities, which emphasizes shared human wisdom over competition of business and technology, and which develops rapport.
Any translated text inherently strives to facilitate mutual understanding. Within the shared knowledge of human existence, English-written texts on Chinese subject matters outnumber significantly Chinese-written texts on English subject matters, creating a knowledge imbalance. The imbalance deserves attention partly because Chinese readers make up a huge portion of the world population. In the permeable global village today, their interaction with the world calls for more texts written for them. This is where this site fits in, to introduce foreign ideas and school of thoughts to the Chinese readerships.
The website is so far a personal blog limited by my time and energy. It can certainly not fill in the huge blind spot of intellectual exchange of complex ideas and theories between Chinese and the English world; neither can it provide a consummate solution to the translational problems. What the site aims for is to experiment an alternative model for intellectual exchange. Lots of complex humanities ideas are conventionally active within certain academic discourse, shared among academic communities. The website attempts to break the boundary and make these ideas accessible to a much larger audience. More importantly, also boundary-breaking is the strategies of translation. Based on adapted translation, the strategies innovatively re-create a translated text poised between the academia and the general public, between the specialist art practitioners and the general audience, and this in-between-ness has to be simultaneously re-positioned when the complex idea is migrating from English to Chinese context. This task can only be achieved through interaction with Chinese readers. The details of the strategies are listed in the next introductory article.
Ultimately, I hope the website can generate some public interests, and more Chinese intellectuals can take up their creative approach to contribute to the intellectual exchange between China and the English world, and together we play a part to facilitate mutual understanding via shared human wisdom.