Translation

My Translation Strategies


Of all kinds of translations from English to Chinese, perhaps the translation of contemporary art is the most challenging one because of the complexity of ideas and very different cultural experiences. Art Forum’s Chinese website, for example,  has lots of translated articles, which are unfortunately not readable because of poor translation. New strategy is needed for this kind of translation. Read more…

 

Translation Sample 1


Screen Shot 2014-02-18 at 11.36.59 PMThe Yishu Journal is a Vancouver-based English journal dedicated to contemporary Chinese art. I was translating some articles from English into Chinese for the Chinese edition of the journal. Most articles were written by scholars and some of them are quite theoretical.

 

Translation Sample 2


Screen Shot 2014-02-18 at 11.39.49 PMThis article was taken from Frieze Magazine. For opinionated article like this one, direct translation does not make sense. It takes some effort to re-write the meaning in Chinese.

 

Translation Sample 3


Screen Shot 2014-02-19 at 8.10.39 AMThe Asia Art Archive organize an art symposiums on October 2013. This translation is one of the keynote speech by art historian Irit Rogoff from the University of London. The article is very theoretical. I try to use less jargon and paraphrase a lot in order to make sense.

Chinese translated into English


This is an interview of Ai Weiwei conducted in Chinese by Shengtian Zheng, the managing editor of Yishu Journal. I was asked to translate it into English. The translation is easier because Ai Weiwei is logical. Not many Chinese artists are good speakers. Some of them would like to pretend to be complex and say things they themselves do not understand.