Trials of translation
The journalists who write for the English version of Xinhua, the official Chinese news service, are very fluent. Their use of English is usually indistinguishable from that of journalists whose native language is English.However, when the political hacks insist on publishing their "politically correct" policy statements, the English language suffers. Maybe the Chinese language suffers too, but I wouldn't know.
For instance, there was this intriguing headline in Xinhua on 13 August, "People's Daily urges to well use opportunity period."
Now, what is that about?
It turns out that clicking on that headline led to the article which had a slightly different headline, "People's Daily: strategic opportunity period should be well used
But the language in much of the rest of the article sounded like it had been translated by the same propaganda team that translated Mao's speeches during the Cultural Revolution:
It said an op-ed piece in the People's Daily would urge "China to learn in depth the important speech made by Chinese President Hu Jintao..."
The article went on to say that, "Hu's important speech is of significance for us to soberly acknowledging the development trend of current world and China and thus tightly grasping and well using the important strategic opportunity period to build up a well-off society in an all-round way..."
Okay, the article really wasn't meant for an English-language audience. Maybe in Chinese its message wasn't so stilted and awkward. But then why was it published at Xinhua?
I'll bet there will be a revised and more polished version later today.
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:44 AM
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