Lecture Recap | Translation Industry in China & A guide to graduate school applications in Translation and Interpreting

May 22, 2022 | CLA News | xiangbingling

On May 12th, the Department of English, CLA, invited Hongying Zhang and three graduate students, Yumeka, Ayde, and Isla, to give a guest lecture on the translation industry and the application for graduate school major in translation. Hongying Zhang is the Founder & Director of Wenzhou Wanjia Foreign Language Translation Services. She has extensive experience in the translation industry field and is currently running Wanjia Foreign Language Translation Services in Wenzhou.

 
 
 
 

Ayde, Isla, and Yumeka began the lecture by introducing the general situation of the translation industry in China in the past ten years. The opening of China to foreign trade and investment in 1979 boosted the development of the foreign economy. The emergence of manufacturers, commodity traders, and exporters led to a surge in demand for translation. The number of language service enterprises increased to 423,574 in 2021. In addition, translation also plays an essential role in all walks of life, especially in information technology services, government publicity, and translation education. However, the translation industry is also facing significant challenges. The development of modern science and technology has undoubtedly brought great convenience to translation in many fields, thus limiting the development scale of Chinese translation enterprises. However, the severe product homogeneity caused by technological translation also promotes the demand for excellent language scholars in the translation industry, Ayde, Isla, and Yumeka concluded based on their internship experience.
Beyond the exciting and thought-provoking information, students from CLA were also inspired by this example of professional translation operating officer Hongying Zhang and excellent WKU graduate students’ informative and engaging lecture about the translation internship and graduate school application process.

The lecture ended after a lively Q&A session. Students were introduced to the field of translation studies and came away with a better understanding and appreciation of the translation industry.

 
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