Foreign translators help tell nation's story to world

Frankfurt debut

In 2014, Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, which records the thoughts and practices of Xi and the central leadership, debuted at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, where it was available in nine languages, including Chinese, English, French and German.

The second and third volumes of the book were published in a number of languages in 2017 and 2020 respectively.

In November, the Malay edition of the book's first volume was launched in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital. To date, the first volume has been translated and published in 36 languages.

Former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a loyal reader of the series, said in an article: "I read the book with keen interest, as it expounds on China's development philosophy and reveals political aspirations, the concept of governance and Xi Jinping's great planning. In a nutshell, Xi Jinping: The Governance of China is a good book worth reading."

One reader who bought the English-language version of the first volume, described the book on the Amazon website as, "An insightful explanation of how China has achieved its economic and social changes efficiently on such a massive scale."

Gao, from China International Communications Group, said the translation of leaders' works and Party and government documents is part of the Chinese political discourse, which is distinctive for its characteristics and is highly concise.

"This is why we need advice from foreign experts to help bridge the differences in terms of languages, cultures and social systems in order to present Chinese ideas to foreign readers in a way they can understand," he said.

Gao, also executive vice-president and secretary-general of the Translators Association of China, said that in April, the association for the first time awarded seven foreign experts for their outstanding contributions to translation work in China.

"In the future, the association will encourage more foreign experts to engage in translating Chinese into foreign languages to tell the China story well to the world," Gao added.

He said that as China's national strength and influence overseas continue to gain momentum, the international community is looking forward to hearing the nation's voice and proposals more than ever before.

"If, in the first place, we can provide translated versions of important political discourses that may raise considerable concern in the international community, this will reduce the chances of China's development strategy being misjudged," he said.

In November, the 19th CPC Central Committee convened its sixth plenary session, which drew widespread attention at home and overseas, as it passed a landmark resolution that charted a path to the future.

As the plenary session concluded on Nov 11, translated versions of the communique from the meeting were issued in 10 languages at the same time as the Chinese version.

Foreign-language versions of the resolution's full text and an explanation of the resolution made by Xi were also available on Nov 16, when a Chinese version was also released.

Zhang Shiyi, director of the Institute of Party History and Literature's translation division, said, "It took us only eight days to translate the three documents, which contain more than 50,000 Chinese characters.

"Only when translated expressions are coherent and the meaning is correctly delivered, will the international community be able to understand China as well as the ideas and propositions of the CPC," Zhang said.