On Contributions By Translators To The Development Of Communication Studies In China

Translation and its studies cherish a long tradition.Remarkable achievements have been scored in the research of translation history both at home and abroad.However.abundant in the studies on the translation history in China are literary works and their translators.A deploring lack is found of studies on translators of the humanities and social sciences other than literature.There could be two reasons.On the one hand,influential translators of non-literary works are not strong enough to be regarded as a community.On the other,researchers,out of long-standing stereotypes,focus their critical eyes on literary translation and "ignore" other translations as far from elegant enough for academic treatment.Outstanding here now is Professor He Daokuan of Shenzhen University,who can not,should not and ought not be "ignored" any more,for he has published dozens of translations of works on communication studies and with that made great contributions to the development of communication studies in China.Over four years devoted to exploring He Daokuan.including interviews with He Daokuan and explorations of his translations and their relevance with the development of communication studies in China.has led to the following major findings:1)Researchers on communication studies in China have drawn upon He's translation far more than upon their original English works;2)He's translations have been so well received simply because he has systematically kept up with western works on communication studies and because his translations are masterpieces in terms of their quality;3)He's masterpieces come from his shift from a translator to a researcher of the field for his translation and the interaction and interplay of a translator and researcher as well as his own cultural tradition:4)Initially a teacher of English,He Daokuan has set up a model as a translator and researcher for most teachers of English in China in terms of career development;5)The crown of "a master of translation" calls for justification,as translators'subjectivity has now drawn great attention from translation researchers.A translator with professional ethics can bring his subjectivity into full play without distorting source texts and thus Bourdieu's social critique has been adopted in exploring He Daokuan along with the three key concepts of field,habitus and capital.The present research.albeit a case study.has hopefully filled a gap in the studies of translation history in China with its implications for the career development of most teachers of foreign languages in China.Corpus-based translation studies of ours are already under way.Therefore,the limitations of the present study will certainly be overcome and new findings made as the studies continue to produce new insights.