Perspectives

Studies in Translatology

ISSN: 0907-676X (Print) 1747-6623 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmps20

Investigating institutional practice in news

translation: An empirical study of a Chinese
agency translating discourse on China

Li Pan

To cite this article: Li Pan (2014) Investigating institutional practice in news translation: An
empirical study of a Chinese agency translating discourse on China, Perspectives, 22:4, 547-565,
DOI: 10.1080/0907676X.2014.948888

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2014.948888

Published online: 04 Nov 2014.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 1272

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Citing articles: 7 View citing articles

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rmps20

Download by: [University of Bristol] Date: 21 October 2017, At: 07:17

 Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 2014
Vol. 22, No. 4, 547–565, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2014.948888

Investigating institutional practice in news translation: An empirical

study of a Chinese agency translating discourse on China
Li Pan*

Faculty of English Language and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou,
China
(Received 26 January 2014; accepted 23 July 2014)
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

News translation, as an act or process of reproducing news stories, is carried out as part
of an institutional routine. However, previous studies on news translation, mostly
focusing on text analysis, usually ignored the institutional practice involved. Based
on an empirical survey, this study explores the impact of institutional practice and
guidelines on actual translation in the Reference News Newspaper (RNN), a Chinese
news organisation engaging in translation and famed for upholding ‘faithful translation’
when translating foreign reports for Reference News, a prestigious Chinese newspaper
with the largest daily circulation in China. With transediting well established as the
common translation practice in news organisations and faithful translation rarely
accepted as the criterion of news translation, it is interesting to investigate how the
filtering and gatekeeping nature of a news organisation accommodates the practice
of producing ‘faithful translation’, especially when translating reports on sensitive
domestic realities in China for the Chinese reader. Incorporating the responses from
interviews and a self-completed questionnaire, the paper also explores the roles of
translation and the translator in the Chinese news organisation.
Keywords: news translation; empirical research; news translating institution; transla-
tion practice; Chinese newspaper

I. Introduction
News translation has been addressed with increasing academic attention in the past decade
(Baker, 2006; Chalaby, 2005; Cronin, 2003; Kiss, 2004; Pan, 2010a, 2010b, 2014; Tsai,
2005, 2006). The attention matches to some extent the ever-growing awareness of the
significant role of translation in the information flow in this age of globalisation (Bassnett,
2005; Bielsa, 2005, 2006, 2007; Bielsa & Bassnett, 2009; Holland, 2006; Orengo, 2005).
However, previous studies in news translation, mostly focusing on analysing the texts
(Chen, 2010; Schäffner, 2004; Valdeón, 2008; Zhang, 2002, 2011), usually ignored the
role of a news organisation in the translation, neglecting the fact that news translation, as
act or process of reproducing news stories, is carried out as part of the institutional routine
in a news organisation (Pan, in press, 2014). The lack of empirical research in this regard
could in some cases impair the validity of the conclusions in some research that is based
merely on the analysis of the translated and source news, and assumptions about the actual
institutional practice in producing the translations, especially when they are produced by a
news translating institution that prides itself on its own practice of news translation.

*Email: jacy2000@163.com

© 2014 Taylor & Francis

 548 L. Pan

Reference News Newspaper (RNN, or the Newspaper hereafter; Chinese in pinyin:

Cancao Xiaoxi Baoshe) is such a news organisation. Engaging in translating foreign
reports as reference for the Chinese, it is famed for upholding ‘faithful translation’ in
preparing reports for its Reference News (RN; Chinese in pinyin: Cancao Xiaoxi), a daily
Chinese newspaper that enjoys the largest circulation in China and is most prestigious for
having served as the major and most authoritative news source for the Chinese leaders.
The prominent status and advocacy of fidelity has drawn many researchers to carefully
scrutinise its translations. However, the distinctive institutional practice of the news
organisation has been rarely researched. As transediting is well established as the
common translation practice in news organisations and faithful translation is rarely
accepted as the criterion of news translation, it is interesting to investigate how the
generally acknowledged filtering and gatekeeping nature of a news organisation
accommodates the practice of producing ‘faithful translation’, especially in translating
discourse on sensitive domestic realities in China for the Chinese reader.
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

The present study will survey the institutional practice of the Chinese news organisation
in translating news discourse on China. Based on a survey of its editorial staff and
translators, it first examines the institutional impact on its actual news translation and then
explores how institutional practice and translators’ beliefs enable or hinder ‘faithful
translation’ in translating sensitive discourse related to China. It aims to establish that the
roles of translation and the translator in the news organisation are decided by its specific
function in the information flow and its institutional goal of producing ‘faithful translation’.

II. Translating institutions and news translation

The role of translating institutions in translation has long been noted in translation studies
(e.g. Hajmohammadi, 2005; Koskinen, 2000, 2008; Mossop, 1988, 1990), but the impact
of institutionally issued guidelines and approaches on the actual translation of
institutional discourse is still controversial and in need of further investigation (Mason,
2004; Munday, 2007). For Mossop (1988), who coins the term ‘translating institutions’ to
refer to the organisations or institutions that undertake translation or for which translation
is done, institutions play such crucial roles in translation that the institutional approaches
are believed decisive on ‘how a translation is done’ in an institutional setting. However,
Mason’s analysis of translations for the European Parliament and the UNESCO Courier
questions the actual effect of the institutional guidelines and approaches on ‘actual
translational practice’ (2004, p. 470). Mason notes that there is actually ‘little uniformity
of practice’ of ‘influence of institutional guidelines on translator behaviour’ in both
sets of data (p. 473). His finding is to some extent echoed by what Munday (2007)
observes of the translator’s ‘choices at the lexicogrammatical level’ (p. 213) that give rise
to some shifts in naming and speech representation. According to Munday (2007, p. 213),
apart from the translator’s related conscious strategies and the influence of the institution,
his ‘unique experience of the two languages’ can bring the identified shifts. It somehow
confirms that the approaches adopted by the translators working for the same translating
institution are not expected to always be ‘in any uniform way’ (Mason, 2004, p. 470).
The different views in this regard thus point to the need for further enquiry, for instance,
into the roles of translation and translator in a particular translating institution, the actual
operational procedures of producing an institutional translation, and the factors
responsible for the possible absence of a uniform approach adopted by all the translators
working for the same institution.
 Perspectives 549

It has also been noted that in news organisations, translation is indispensable to every
stage of news production (Bielsa, 2006, 2007), and transediting (Stetting, 1989) is
assumed to be a uniform translational approach (Bielsa & Bassnett, 2009; Wang, 2008;
Yan, 2011). For instance, Bielsa and Bassnett (2009) note that in global news agencies,
transediting is such a widely adopted practice that the translator and the work of
translation are completely ‘invisible’ (p. 91). Translation is so ‘fully incorporated into the
production of news’ (p. 81) that no one calls himself a translator, nor can anyone tell
which the source texts are. That is because the international journalists and editors
frequently perform a ‘hybrid’ task of news selecting, translating, and editing (p. 85), and
translation in those global news agencies like Inter Press Service, Agence France-Presse,
and Reuters is more of a ‘rewriting’ process (p. 3, p. 86) or even just a ‘news-gathering
procedure’ (p. 14), than a transfer of information in the interlingual sense of ‘translation’.
However, transediting or rewriting is not necessarily always the legitimate translation
approach in all kinds of news companies and agencies (Conway, 2005; Kang, 2007). As
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

Kang (2007, p. 225) describes, to be ‘faithful to the source text’ is one of the major
principles outlined by the news company publishing Newsweek Hankuk Pan, the Korean
translated edition of the New York-based weekly news magazine Newsweek. Her
interview with an editor of the Korean magazine finds that, to guarantee faithful
translation, the responsibility of translating, checking, and editing is distinctly distributed
among the translator, checker, and editor in the company (Kang, 2007, 2010). The ‘native
checkers’, who are fluent in both English and Korean, are particularly important in
guarding against discrepancy in the translations. They are responsible for checking and
proofreading the translated texts and sending them back to the translators when ‘a
discrepancy is detected in referential or connotative meaning between the source and
target text’ (2007, p. 226). Therefore, in the national or local news companies or
organisations that present themselves as news translating institutions engaging in
producing equivalent translation of the source texts, faithful translation is upheld as the
only legitimate translation criterion in their institutional principles.
On the other hand, though news translation is well-recognised as institutional transla-
tion (e.g. Mossop, 1990), most research on news translation has so far placed it under
scrutiny for its textual features, neglecting its basic attributes of institutional translation,
being ‘organisational, structural, relational, ideological’ as well as ‘socially situated’
(Kang 2009, p. 141). While textual analysis can shed light on what the translation by a
specific news translating institution is like (e.g. Bassnett, 2005; Doorslaer, 2009; Valdeón,
2008; Vuorinen, 1995), it cannot explain the motives behind the choices between different
translation approaches or strategies in different news organisations. Nor can it explain how
a specific news organisation reacts to the social context in which it functions, though it has
been noted that a news organisation plays a critical role in mediating the text it produces
and the context of social and cultural realities (Fairclough, 1995).
The investigation of the institutional practice of a news company or newspaper is also
necessary to draw the researchers’ attention to the variety of possible practices in news
translation. As an institution disseminating information, a news organisation is complex
in structure and relations. Similarly, as a translating institution, each newspaper and news
organisation is likely to characterise itself by its own institutional approach and goals,
facilitated by a set of processes, practices and conventions that the people in it have
developed within a particular social and cultural context (Mason, 2004; Pan, in press).
That is what makes case-by-case investigation into the actual translational practice
necessary and significant in the study of institutional translations in general, and in news
translation study in particular.
 550 L. Pan

III. An empirical study of the institutional practice in a Chinese news translating

institution
Similar to the Korean news company that presents itself as a translating institution
committed to producing faithful translation of news stories for the Korean edition of
Newsweek (Kang, 2007), RNN, the Chinese news organisation that publishes RN, also
describes faithful translation as its legitimate criterion when translating for its newspaper.
What distinguishes it from its Korean counterpart is that it provides its reader with
translations of foreign news articles written in dozens of languages, and collected from
most of the major international wire services and foreign national news media. As
transediting rather than faithful translation is recognised as the generally accepted practice
in news translation, it is interesting to investigate how the nature of a news organisation’s
‘filtering’ and ‘gatekeeping’ function (Bennett, 2004; Shoemaker, 1991; Shoemaker &
Reese, 1996; White, 1950) accommodates the practice of ‘faithful translation’ and what
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

is conceived as faithful translation in its institutional practice. To find answers to the

above questions, the survey results, from both interviews and a questionnaire into the
procedures, responsibility distributions, and related assumptions, are presented after a
brief introduction of the Chinese news organisation and its translations.

3.1. The news translating institution and its translations

RNN, a Chinese news organisation operated under the Chinese state-run Xinhua News
Agency, translates nearly three dozen foreign languages into Chinese in preparing reports
for RN (Fan, 2004), a quality national newspaper enjoying the largest circulation among
all daily papers in China and ranking number five in circulation among daily newspapers
around the world in 2011 (Wang, 2013). For nearly five decades in its early history, the
paper served as the authoritative news source for the Chinese leaders about international
events and other countries’ views and policies towards China (Fan, 2004). According to
the paper itself, what makes it unique are two of its major features: it provides its readers
with faithful translations of foreign news articles and it offers information about other
countries’ views and opinions about China instead of China’s own opinions. The second
feature led to the humorous remark by Mao Zedong, the founding father and first
chairman of the People’s Republic of China, that it was ‘an imperialistic newspaper
published by the Chinese Communist Party’ (Wang, 2013).
With its claim of being ‘faithful to the source texts’ and its prominent status in China,
RNN has long attracted researchers to find counter evidences to its claim, mostly with
close scrutiny in textual analysis of the translated news published in the paper. For
instance, Pan (2012) observes from her corpus-based textual analysis of all RNN’s reports
of four China-related major events in 2008 that the stance signalled in RNN’s translations
is distinct from that in the originals and mediation of stance is evident in evaluative
deviations. These are particularly frequent in translating sensitive news discourse on
China, such as reports of events related to Tibet. Based on the data analysis of its
translations of English reports on the Sino-US mid-air collision in 2001, Huang (2007)
finds that changes are evident in its translation at textual, syntactic, and lexical levels.
Many researchers have detected significant discrepancies between RN’s headlines and
those of the source news text and thus conclude that RNN deploys transediting instead of
literal translation (e.g. Liu, 2010; Tu, 2012). Some even take the discrepancies between
the headlines as evidence of the news translator’s manipulation (e.g. Lin, 2013). Above
all, omission is argued to be the most obvious and critical evidence of RNN’s transediting
 Perspectives 551

or mistranslating the original news (Tu, 2012), which most often leads researchers to
discuss its ideological implications (Liu, 2012)

3.2. Institutional practice in the news translating institution

The conflict between RNN’s claim of faithful translation being its institutional feature and
guideline, and the deviations and discrepancies identified, leads to questions about the
decisive role of the institutional guidelines on actual translational practice. Mason asks
(2004, p. 471), ‘Do the guidelines issued by institutions affect translational practice in
any uniform way?’ In the case of the Chinese news organisation, with faithful translation
prescribed as a guideline of translating news, do its translators follow the guideline in
their actual translation practice? What has lead to the identified deviations and mediation?
Surveys of institutional practice related to translating news at the news organisation may
provide some revealing answers. Conducted at RNN’s headquarters in Beijing, the capital
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

city of China, in April 2010, the survey included two in-depth interviews, with a deputy
editor-in-chief and a coordinator responsible for English to Chinese translation
respectively, and a questionnaire of its in-house full time translators.

3.2.1 Institutional routines in translating news: interview surveys

The purpose of the interviews is to gather information about RNN’s practice in translating
news, with questions focusing on its working procedures, responsibility distribution, the
interviewees’ understandings of faithful translation and the training system and regular
meetings (see the interview questions relevant to the present study reproduced in
Appendix 1).

News translating procedures and distribution of responsibilities. Both the interviews with
the deputy editor-in-Chief and the English-Chinese translation coordinator reveal that as
an institutional translational activity, news translation in the news organisation involves
distinctive distribution of responsibilities in the various procedures of news selecting,
translating, revising and editing. They stress that the news organisation, fully committed
to news translation, distinguishes itself from other news translating institutions by some
attributes peculiar to itself in terms of the distribution of responsibilities and distinctive
roles involved in the systematic procedures of translation production.
To start with, the process of selecting news is complicated by the news organisation’s
practice of translating news daily selected from thousands of news articles from hundreds
of newspapers and other news media in dozens of languages into Chinese for its daily
newspaper. The tough task is managed by its news selecting teams home and abroad. Its
seven news selecting teams stationed abroad, covering all the continents, are responsible
for collecting and selecting the latest stories and commentaries from the locally available
international newspapers, news wires and other news media and then summarising the
gist of each selected text into Chinese before sending them back to the news selecting
teams at home. The selection teams at home then choose from each selected news article
the points that are considered most relevant and interesting to the domestic readers and
list them in Chinese. The Chinese lists, together with the selected foreign news texts, are
then submitted to the editorial staff at the headquarters.
After a discussion with the whole editing team, the editor-in-chief decides the articles
to be translated and published. Then the editors prepare an ‘order’ that lists all the points
and articles to be translated that day and gives it to the coordinators of the translation
departments, who then distribute the articles among the translators responsible for
 552 L. Pan

different languages. Following the lists of the selected points of the assigned articles, the
translators are supposed to translate literally and faithfully the titles of the articles and all
the paragraphs related to those points in the lists. When it is finished, the translation is
submitted to the editors, who are responsible for editing the news and designing the
headline. According to the interviewees, the editor usually designs a new headline for the
translation, and inserts the literally translated title of the source news text after the Chinese
dateline. Together with the title, the dateline, which includes the name of the news source
and dispatching date of the source text, indicates to the reader that the Chinese report is a
translation and the source news text is traceable.

News translating guidelines and requirements. For any submitted translation, the basic
requirement is to be faithful to the source text. When asked what kind of translation can
be seen as faithful, the deputy editor-in-chief stated that it must be a literal translation and
explained that this meant the back translation would be the same as the source text.
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

Producing faithful translations of foreign reports for the Chinese reader, according to the
two interviewees, is both the institutional goal and principle. One of them went on to
stress that the essential feature of translated news articles at RN is ‘yuanzhi yuanwei’, and
that is, ‘keeping the original style and flavour of the source news texts’. To fulfil the
principle and goal, the translators are required to translate the paragraphs of a selected
point literally and fully and ‘should change nothing even when it is negative, biased
against China, criticises the Chinese government, or even when it is totally different from
our own stance’.
Both interviewees stress that, if it is really necessary to naturalise the translated text, it
is the editors’ rather than the translators’ responsibility to change the wording. Not even
the editors, who are also responsible for making adjustments to match the newspaper’s
reporting form while fitting the translated text into the allotted space on the newspaper
page and designing its headlines, are allowed to make significant alterations in the
process of editing the translated text. Omission, the only acceptable alteration, is only
allowed when facts have been twisted by the original news writer. In the deputy’s words,
it is the news organisation’s purpose to present what is in the foreign stories and
commentaries rather than the news organisation’s own views and stances, and that is why
faithful translation counts in the institutional practice of the news organisation.
Though insisting on the significance of fidelity in translation, the editors, most of
whom majored in Chinese or journalism, are mostly unilingual and unable to catch
‘unfaithful’ translations. In fact, with news in so many languages and in such large
amounts translated into Chinese every day at the news organisation, it is hardly possible
for the editors or anyone else to check the translations in terms of fidelity. What the
editors usually do is to read the translation to see the wording and its fluency.

News translator training system and regular meetings. Over its 83 years of development,
the news organisation has established its own effective training system and formulated
efficient forms of meetings. The interviewees indicate that it is the training system and
regular meetings that facilitate the smooth running of the operational procedures.
To guarantee the quality of the translations, a beginner’s version has to be reviewed
by a senior translator before it is submitted. That is part of the training process that every
newcomer has to go through before working independently. Though the prestigious status
of the agency attracts top translators from around the country, all the beginners in the
translation department, called ‘assistant translator’ at RNN, have to get their translations
reviewed before submitting them. According to its system, the newcomers need to be
 Perspectives 553

trained two to three years before they are approved to work individually as a translator.
After working individually for another two to three years, they may become reviewers of
the newcomers. Therefore, the reviewers are the veterans in the translation department,
usually vice senior translators, and sometimes senior translators. The beginners are
‘trained and institutionalised’ not only by working with senior or vice senior translators to
improve their own translations but also by reading and practicing the instructions and
regulations prescribed by RNN.
Daily and weekly meetings are another important part of the institutional routine at
RNN. The daily meetings are operational, held at nine o’clock every morning and known
as ‘morning meetings’ at the news organisation. Chaired by the editor-in-chief, and
attended by editorial staff at all levels and the heads or coordinators of the translation
departments, the morning meeting, more formally called the ‘pre-editing meeting’,
discusses the hot news topics to be covered and the perspectives and priorities of the
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

day’s reports so as to decide the whole days’ translation work. Right after the pre-editing
meeting, another short meeting is held in the translation office, at which the head of the
office or the coordinators of the translation departments convey the ‘spirit’ and ‘gist’ of
the pre-editing meeting to the translators and assign translators for the selected articles.
There is a staff meeting every Wednesday afternoon. However, the interviewees, who
considered it irrelevant to news translation, mentioned few of its details.

3.2.2. News translators’ beliefs and assumptions: surveyed with a questionnaire

A questionnaire was used to survey the translators’ role in the actual practice in the news
translating institution when translating news on China. Specifically, the translators were
asked how they handle sensitive expressions, their understanding of faithful translation
and top concerns in translating news on China. They were also asked about their attitudes
towards negative foreign coverage and their assumptions about the Chinese readers’
reactions to biased reports on China.
Fifty copies of a self-complete questionnaire (See Appendix 2) were distributed to
RNN’s English-Chinese translators responsible for English news for RN in the afternoon
of 14 April 2010, also the day of the interviews. Administered in the paper-and-pencil
mode, 49 copies were collected two days later, and the other copy was submitted to
RNN’s editor-in-chief for his approval. Of the copies collected, 35 were completed, with
34 respondents answering all the questions and one giving no answers to the last two
questions that ask about their attitudes towards negative coverage and assumptions about
the Chinese readers’ reactions. A summary of the questionnaire responses is provided in
Appendix 3.

Beliefs about ‘faithful translation’. Most essentially, RNN’s translators do not have a
uniform understanding of the very criterion of ‘faithful translation’, though it is the basic
principle that they are required to follow. Some believe that faithful translation requires
correspondence of the ST and TT in all aspects and levels while others do not think so.
Surprisingly, only about half of the respondents (18 out of 35, 51%) think that a faithful
translation is produced when the TT corresponds to the ST in terms of hard facts, attitude
and stance, and the meanings and tones of the key expressions, while less than a third
(9, 26%) believe it is faithful translation when the TT corresponds to the ST in the
structure of the sentences as well as in hard facts, attitude and stance, and the meanings
and tones of the key expressions. The rest consider the translation faithful either when the
 554 L. Pan

TT and the ST correspond to each other in hard facts (4, about 11%) or when the TT
corresponds to the ST in the attitude and stance as well as hard facts (4, about 11%).

Top concerns in translating China related news. The translators’ concerns when
translating news related to China were surveyed by asking them to choose five factors
from the multiple choice questions that had the most significant impact on their work. It
is found that, besides the stance in the original reports, which is not surprisingly the
foremost concern of 33 respondents (94%), the other top considerations are the
requirements of the news organisation and instructions prescribed in its style manual,
the country’s news policy and regulations, values and beliefs of the mainstream, and
government stance. Interestingly, while the Chinese readers’ expectation and attitude does
not enter the top five, nearly a third (10), when asked whether or not the target reader’s
response to a China-related event should be taken into consideration, believe it should be.
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

Those who care about the target readers’ response as well as other factors apart from the
stance in the original would probably resort to various ways to mediate the target texts if
there is a conflict in their concerns.

Translation methods for sensitive expressions. ‘Sensitive expressions’ refer to expres-

sions with political or ideological implications and thus tend to lead to disputes
among the parties concerned, including terms and phrases with negative connotations of
news events or the parties involved. The responses indicate that when translating
sensitive expressions, the ways are divided, with 11 of the 35 respondents (31%)
following the Chinese state TV stations and newspapers and the rest adopting a literal
translation method. There are also differences between veteran and less veteran
translators when translating sensitive referring terms: among the 10 respondents who
have worked less than five years at the news organisation, 40% (4) of them choose to
follow the mainstream media and 60% choose to translate literally; among the
25 veteran translators, only 28% (7) follow the mainstream media and the rest 72%
(18) translate literally. As for elements with negative connotations on China, the
responses confirm the interviewees’ belief that literal translation is the approach
adopted by the translators, with the majority (32) choosing literal translation and most
of them (31) doing so to be faithful to the original. However, two respondents choose to
replace the negative words with neutral ones and indicate they do so to follow the
instruction in the style manual. Another respondent who chooses none of the methods
listed in the questionnaire, clearly states that methods of dealing with such sensitive
expressions depend on the purposes.

Assumptions about coverage of China and reactions of the Chinese readers. The different
ways of handling expressions for referring to and describing sensitive news events
and the parties involved are to some extent in accordance with the translators’ beliefs
and assumptions about the reporting perspective of the Western news media, Western
coverage of China, and the impact of negative reports on the Chinese readers. It is
found that most of the 34 translators who answered the last two questions (71%, 25)
believe that some Western news reports on China are very biased, though almost all of
them (97%, 33 out of 34) take negative coverage as normal and acceptable in
journalism. However, more than half of the respondents (56%, 19) believe proper
guidance should be given to the Chinese readers so as to help them to avoid the
possible ‘harmful influence’ of biased and negative reports on China though most
 Perspectives 555

(85%, 29) do not think the Chinese readers believe everything in the international
coverage of China.

IV. Roles of translation and the translator in the news institution

The findings of the survey reveal at least three critical aspects of institutional practice of
the Chinese news organisation engaging in translation, mainly concerning the roles of
translation and the translator, the impact of the institutional guideline on the actual
translational practice, and the factors that can lead to translators’ mediation in translation.
To start with, contrary to its role in a global news agency, translation in the Chinese
news organisation is not incorporated as an ‘invisible’ or ‘untraceable’ component into
news production, but presented as the translation proper in its traditional sense, in which
fidelity and literal translation are advocated as the institutional guideline and basic
requirement. Presented as the prominent feature of the Chinese newspaper, translation is
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

placed at the centre of all the institutional routines in RNN and taken as the centrepiece of
the whole operational process of preparing its texts. At the same time, unlike those
agencies in which translation is undertaken by the journalists or editors, the Chinese
news organisation boasts a large staff of in-house, full-time translators of several dozen
languages, among whom nearly 100 are senior and associate senior translators.
Prestigious and respected in the Chinese society, RNN’s translators do not call themselves
‘international journalists’ but ‘RNN news translators’, who form the major work force of
the organisation. Clearly, both the institutional goal of faithful translation and the
distinctive distribution of responsibilities decide the distinctive and indispensable role
played by the translator.
Secondly, the institutional guideline of translating literally to produce faithful
translation affects the actual translational practice differently. The different ways of
referring to news events and the parties involved indicate that the institutional impact on
the translators’ actual translation is not uniform. The conflict between the expected
pursuit of faithful translation and the actual function of gatekeeper pushes the translators
to play a more complex role than those in the global and other national news
organisations. Required to translate faithfully, they are supposed to play the traditional
role of the translator in the true sense, rather than to serve as a re-creator, writer (Beilsa
and Bassnett 2009, p. 64), or ‘transeditor’ (Stetting 1989, p. 376).
On the one hand, the translators, having gone through the in-house training process
before working as full-time staff for the news organisation, are institutionalised
professional news translators. It is not surprising to find that their actual translation
practice is largely in line with the institutional approach. That explains why under most
circumstances, the majority of the translators of RNN tend to follow the guideline and
approach imposed by the institution by adopting a literal translation method.
On the other hand, the translators do not always follow the institution’s guidelines of
literal method and faithful translation but mediate the translation like a gatekeeper. That is
facilitated by the absence of effective checks on their translations. It is also in accordance
with their own belief in their role, in a news organisation engaged in translating foreign
news. Unlike the global news organisations who ‘are the first to approach and describe
new realities’ and thus determine the ‘expressions that will be widely used by other
media’ (Bielsa & Bassnett, 2009), the news translating institution in question, advocating
faithful translation, seems to have to passively follow whatever is used in the source texts.
However, some of the translators, believing in the necessity of guarding against the
possible bad influence of biased and negative reports on the Chinese reader, tend to
 556 L. Pan

understand their role to be more than a simple information transmitter, ‘a benign,

technical medium’ (Mossop, 1990) but part of the gatekeeping function a news
organisation generally needs to fulfil.
Thirdly, the factors that can lead to mediation in translation include the streamline
process of producing translated texts, the producers’ varied understandings of the criterion
of faithful translation and their assumptions about Western coverage and the Chinese
reader’s response to negative reports. Systematic as it is, the collective producing proce-
dures, with distinctive roles involved, are not free from the possibility of mediation due to
the lack of effective checking and routine reviewing of the translated versions. Though not
allowed to make alterations, translators are not monitored to avoid intervention and
mediation that might lead to unfaithful translations. More essentially, the translators,
expected to produce faithful translations, do not have the same understanding of the
criterion of faithful translation, nor do they always share the same translation approach.
At the same time, the translators who adopt methods other than the institutionally
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

required approach justify their mediation by observing the tendency towards bias in most
of the international news on China and their conviction that it is necessary to guard the
Chinese readers from the ‘harmful influence’ of the biased or negative foreign reports.
Their conviction could possibly be strengthened by their awareness of the official
identities of the news organisation they work for. Operating under the Chinese official
Xinhua News Agency, RNN should not be expected to fully subscribe to the Western
coverage of China that is believed to adopt a reporting perspective different from the
Chinese mainstream media like Xinhua. In fact, the deputy editor-in-chief did not shrink
from admitting that the country’s news polices obviously have impacts on their decision-
making at various stages of the production.
Nevertheless, the alleged mediation evidenced by large portions of omission of the
original text is most often a response to the limited space in the paper and its dominant
role of providing references of foreign news. For a newspaper like RN, omission is
particularly important to achieve brevity in order to provide the domestic reader with
news from around the world, most of which is on-line texts that run into several
thousands of words. The shrinkage in the length is usually the result of the effort to
provide as much information and diversified views as possible about the same event in
the limited space available.
Fundamentally, both the role of translation and that of the translator are decided
by the function that the Chinese news organisation serves in the information flow. Unlike
the global news agencies acting as the news sources for subscribing news organisations
around the world, RNN, as a Chinese official news organisation engaging in translating
foreign news into Chinese, circulates translated international news in its domestic
community. While the organisation’s claimed pursuit of ‘faithful translations’ apparently
meets the Chinese reader’s expectation of its newspaper as a trusty purveyor of other
countries’ reports, its operation under the state-run Xinhua does not allow absolute
freedom when producing translated texts. It is justifiable to say that news selecting,
translating and editing are all sites for mediation between the distinct institutional and
social contexts in which the source and the target news discourse respectively serve and
function.

V. Concluding Remarks
This study, based on the questionnaire and interview, has investigated the institutional
practice of the Chinese news organisation that commits itself to providing translated news
 Perspectives 557

as a reference of foreign reports for the Chinese readers. The surveys reveal that, RNN,
circulating foreign reports in its domestic community, boasting a force of translators and
its goal of producing faithful translations of foreign reports, is more of a news translating
institution than a news organisation. It is also found that as institutional translation, the
role news translation plays, on the one hand is largely decided by the function of the news
organisation that deploys it and, on the other hand, determines the translational approach
and criterion. Additionally, the roles of news translation and the news translator in the
Chinese news organisation are conceived of very differently from those in the news
agencies. Distinguishing itself by focusing on producing translated news stories, the
Chinese news organisation locates translation at the dominant centre of the whole
operational procedure of producing news texts and cherishes the translators as the major
and distinctive work force that is indispensable for achieving its institutional goal of
providing faithful translations. Moreover, it is found that the guidelines issued by the
translating institution do not affect the actual translational practice in a uniform way.
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

The research has also been an attempt to investigate the institutional practice for
possible factors responsible for the alleged unfaithfulness or mediation in the translated
news articles carried in the newspaper. Institutional factors that possibly lead to mediation
include the inherent conflict between the institutional guideline of producing faithful
translation with a literal translation method and the gatekeeping function the news
organisation has to perform, and the translators’ belief in their role and their assumptions.
It confirms to some extent the belief that the translators, though expected to be
information transmitters, unavoidably apply their own beliefs and assumptions to their
actual practice and thus function as part of the gatekeeping institution in the mediation
between the different social contexts.
Even with all that has been said about the translators’ possible mediation, the
translations published in RN are largely faithful if the researchers understand that what the
news organisation claims to be ‘faithful translation’ actually refers to the faithful
translation of the selected paragraphs of the selected foreign reports. They will also
understand the omissions better if they are aware of the dominant attribute of the
newspaper providing translated news of foreign reports as a reference by packing
information from as many news media and sources as possible in one translated report,
and the impossibility of including the full translations within its limited space.
The research, most likely the first ever empirical investigation into the institutional
practice of the most authoritative Chinese news organisation engaging in translating
international news, has provided an interesting glimpse of the institutional practice of the
state-run news organisation which is usually inaccessible to researchers and any other
outsiders because of its official status. Admittedly, the findings of the present study have
been derived from a relatively small-scale survey. Even so, the investigation provides a
comparably full account of the actual practice of the news translating institution and
could be helpful for a better interpretation of the findings from the various textual
analyses of its translations. In view of the distinctive institutional practices in translating
news in different news organisations, the study underlines the necessity for more
empirical surveys into the varied practices related to the actual production of translated
journalistic texts and the distinct roles of translation and the translator in different news
media as well as news organisations.

Acknowledgements
Sincere gratitude is given to Professor Mona Baker and Professor Zhang Meifang for their
encouragement and suggestion of the present study, my friends in Beijing for their effort of making
 558 L. Pan

my access to the usually inaccessible Chinese official news organisation possible, and the editors
and translators at RNN for their responses to the interviews and questionnaire. The study was part
of my project on ‘An empirical research of institutional practice in news translation and its
application to translation training’ (Award Number 2013JK062) supported by Educational
Commission of Guangdong Province, China. It was also part of the project ‘The study of the
mechanism of news translation’ (Award Number 201319-13s3) supported by from the Youth Union
Foundation of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China. I am also very grateful to the
editor, reviewers, and my copy-editor for their work on this article.

Biographical Notes
Li Pan is a Lecturer at the Department of Translation and Interpretation at Guangdong University of
Foreign Studies. She gained her PhD degree from the University of Macau. She has published nine
papers in refereed journals, including The Translator (2009), Translation Quarterly (Hong Kong,
2014), and Journal of Universal Language (Korea, 2011). Another paper on news translation has
been accepted by Target for publication in early 2015. Her primary research interests include
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

translation for the media and discourse analysis.

References
Baker, M. (2006). Translation and conflict: A narrative account. London: Routledge.
Bassnett, S. (Ed.). (2005). Global news translation [Special issue]. Language and Intercultural
Communication, 5(2), Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Bennett,W. L. (2004). Gatekeeping and press-government relations: A multi-gated model of news
construction. In L.L. Kaid (Ed.), Handbook of political communication research (pp. 283–314).
Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Bielsa, E. (2005). Globalisation and translation: A theoretical approach. Language and Intercultural
Communication, 5(2), 131–144. doi:10.1080/14708470508668889
Bielsa, E. (2006). Globalisation and news translation: The role of the news organizations. Norwich
Papers, 14, 15–28.
Bielsa, E. (2007). Translation in global news organizations. Target, 19 (1), 135–155. doi:10.1075/
target.19.1.08bie
Bielsa, E., & Bassnett, S. (2009). Translation in global news. London: Routledge.
Chalaby, J. K. (Ed.). (2005). Transnational television worldwide: Towards a new media order.
London: I.B. Tauris.
Chen, Y. M. (2010). Ideological manipulation in the translation of newspaper editorials: An
appraisal theory approach. Paper presented at the VII International Conference on Translation:
the Paratextual Elements in Translation, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Conway, K. (2005). Assessing apparently equivalent translations in the news media. Meta, 50(4).
Retrieved from http://www.erudit.org/livre/meta/2005/000201co.pdf doi:10.7202/019834ar
Cronin, M. (2003). Translation and globalization. London: Routledge.
Doorslaer, L. (2009). How language and (non-)translation impact on media newsrooms: the case of
newspapers in Belgium. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 17(2), 83–92. doi:10.1080/
09076760903125051
Fan, W. G. (2004). 《参考消息》的’眼力’ [The ‘vision’ of Reference News]. News and Writing,
9, 3–5.
Fairclough, N. (1995). Media discourse. London: Edward Arnold.
Hajmohammadi, A. (2005). Translation evaluation in a newspaper. Perspectives: Studies in
Translatology, 13(3), 215–224. doi:10.1080/09076760508668993
Holland, R. (2006). Language(s) in the global news: Translation, audience design and discourse
(mis)representation. Target, 18(2), 229–259. doi:10.1075/target.18.2.03hol
Huang, Q. (2007). An interdisciplinary analysis of the Chinese translation of English news. Beijing:
China Social Sciences Publishing House.
Kang, J.-H. (2007). Recontextualization of news discourse: A case study of translation of news
discourse on North Korea. In S. Cunico & J. Munday (Eds.), Translation and ideology:
Encounters and clashes [Special issue]. The Translator, 13, 219–242.
Kang J.-H. (2009). Institutional translation. In M. Baker & G. Saldanha (Eds.), Routledge
encyclopaedia of translation studies (pp. 141–144). London: Routledge.
 Perspectives 559

Kang, J.-H. (2010). Positioning and fact construction in translation: Intertextual and translational chains
in Newsweek Korea. In M. Baker, M. Olohan, and M.C. Pérez (Ed.), Text and context: Essays on
translation and interpreting in honour of Ian Mason (pp. 157–187). Manchester: St. Jerome.
Kiss, J. (2004). Online journalists need multi-language skills. Retrieved from http://www.
journalism.co.uk/news/story843.shtml
Koskinen, K. (2000). Institutional illusions: Translating in the EU Commission. The Translator,
6(1), 49–65. doi:10.1080/13556509.2000.10799055
Koskinen, K. (2008). Translating institutions: An ethnographic study of EU Translation. Manchester:
St Jerome.
Lin, J. (2013). A Case study of the London Olympics news translation in reference news from the
perspective of manipulation theory. (Unpublished master’s thesis). Fujian Normal University,
Fuzhou, China.
Liu, L.Q. (2010). 《参考消息》新闻标题的翻译: 问题与对策 [Translation of headlines in
Reference News: questions and solutions]. Journal of Taiyuan Urban Vocational College, 7,
198–200.
Liu, F. (2012). Reframing in news translation: A case study of translation in Reference News.”
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

(Unpublished master’s thesis). Hunan University, Changsha, China.

Mason, I. (2004). Text parameters in translation: Transitivity and institutional cultures. In L. Venuti
(Ed.), The translation studies reader (pp. 470–481). London: Routledge.
Mossop, B. (1988). Translating institutions: A missing factor in translation theory. TTR: traduction,
terminologie, rédaction, 1(2), 65–71. doi:10.7202/037019ar
Mossop, B. (1990). Translating institutions and ‘idiomatic’ translation. Meta, 35(2), 342–54.
doi:10.7202/003675ar
Munday, J. (2007). Translation and ideology: A textual approach. In S. Cunico & J. Munday (Eds.),
Translation and ideology: Encounters and clashes [Special issue]. The Translator, 13, 195–217.
Orengo, A. (2005). Localising news: Translation and the ‘global-national’ dichotomy. Language
and Intercultural Communication, 5(2), 168–187. doi:10.1080/14708470508668892
Pan, L. (2010a). Labeling as reframing strategy in news translation: A case study of reports on
Beijing Olympics. Paper presented at the FIT Six Asian Translators’ Forum, University of
Macau, Macao.
Pan, L. (2010b). The paratextual elements in news translation: An empirical study of the
institutional practice in translating sensitive discourse on China. Paper presented at the VII
International Conference on Translation: The Paratextual Elements in Translation, Universitat
Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona.
Pan L. (2012). Mediating stance in news translation: A case study of sensitive discourse on China
2008 (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Macau, Macao, China.
Pan L. (2014). Mediation in news translation: A critical analytical framework. In D. Abend (Ed.),
Media and translation: An interdisciplinary approach (pp. 246–265). London: Continuum.
Pan, L. (in press). Ideological positioning in news translation: A case study of evaluative resources
in reports on China. Target: International Journal of Translation Studies.
Pérez, M. C. (Ed.). (2003). Apropos of ideology: Translation studies on ideology–Ideologies in
translation studies. Manchester: St. Jerome.
Schäffner, C. (2004). Political discourse analysis from the point of view of translation studies.
Journal of Language and Politics, 3(1), 117–150.
Shoemaker, P.J. (1991). Gatekeeping. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Shoemaker, P.J., & Reese, S.D. (1996). Mediating the message: Theories of influences on mass
media content. New York: Longman.
Stetting, K. (1989). Transediting: a new term for coping with the grey area between editing and
translating. In Caie, G. et al. (Eds.), Proceedings from the Fourth Nordic Conference for
English Studies (pp. 371–382). Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen.
Tsai, C. (2005). Inside the television newsroom: An insider’s view of international news translation in
Taiwan. Language and Intercultural Communication, 5(2), 145–153. doi:10.1080/1470847050
8668890
Tsai, C. (2006). Translation through interpreting: A television newsroom model. Paper presented at
the Translation in Global News Conference, University of Warwick.
Tu, Y.Y. (2012). 编译新闻的话语分析研究 [On Translated News from the Perspective of
Discourse Analysis]. (Unpublished master’s thesis). Shanghai International Studies University,
Shanghai, China.
 560 L. Pan

Valdeón, R. A. (2008). Anomalous news translation: Selective appropriation of themes and texts in
the internet. Babel, 54(4), 299–326. doi: 10.1075/babel.54.4.01val.
Vuorinen, E. (1995). News translation as gatekeeping. In M. Snell-Hornby, Z. Jettmarová &
K. Kaindl (Eds.), Translation as intercultural communication: Selected papers from the EST
Congress Prague (pp. 161–171). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Wang, J.C. (2013, December 30). 期望《参考消息》继续’种牛痘’ [Reference News should
continue to immunize the Chinese people against ‘smallpox with vaccination’]. Guangming
Daily, p. 9.
Wang, L. (2008). 谈网络英语新闻的编译 [A discussion of transediting English website news].
Chinese Science & Technology Translators Journal, 3, 27–29.
White, D.M. (1950). The ‘gate keeper’: A case study in the selection of news. Journalism
Quarterly, 27, 383–390.
Yan, W. (2011). 对外新闻编译的忠实与叛逆 [Fidelity and treason in transediting of Chinese
news]. Chinese Translators Journal, 6, 24–27.
Zhang, M. (2002). 语言的评价意义与译者的价值取向 [Appraisal meaning of language and the
judgement of value of the translator]. Foreign Languages and Their Teaching, 7, 15–18.
Zhang, M. (2011). 翻译中的超文本成分:以新闻翻译为例 [Paratextual elements in translation:
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

with special reference to news translation]. Chinese Translators Journal, 2, 50–55.

Appendix 1. Questions asked in the interviews

(1) What are the methodical procedures and distinct roles involved in the process of
producing translated news stories at RNN?
(2) Can you tell me the respective role and function of translators and the editors in
producing news texts at RNN?
(3) Do you have a style manual? If yes, do you follow the instructions in the style manual in
editing the translations?
(4) It is claimed that the translations in RN are faithful to their original news texts. What is
your understanding of ‘faithful news translation’?
(5) In editing, do you check the translation against its ST or edit the translated news texts
alone?
(6) Can you introduce the translator training system?
(7) Do you have regular meetings? If yes, what are the forms?
(8) Do you think there is ideological conflict in news translation?
(9) If yes, do you think translation approaches should be resorted to in negotiating such
conflict in news translation?
(10) Do you think the country’s news policy exerts impact on your work? How and
how much?

Appendix 2. Self-complete questionnaire

RNN’s institutional practice in translating news on China
I am a PhD student of the University of Macau doing research on translator’s stance in translating
news on China. My research, considering the news texts in RN in text analysis, is expected to be
supplemented with the surveys of the actual practice at RNN. I would therefore like you to answer
some questions about your work. Your responses are extremely valuable to me and I would
immensely appreciate you answering all questions.
 Perspectives 561

Part I Personal Info

1. Your age __________________

2. Your gender A Female B Male

3. Your major(s) (you can select one or more than one)

A English B Chinese C Journalism D International Studies E Other ____

4. You have been working as a news translator for

A 1-2 years B 3-4 years C 5-10 years D 11 and over 11 years

5. You have been working as a news translator in RNN for

Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

A 1-2 years B 3-4 years C 5-10 years D 11 and over 11 years

6. You are responsible for ___________________________ in RNN.

A news selecting B news translating C news editing

Part II

7. Are you provided with an English-Chinese glossary in translating news on China?

A yes (go to question 8) B no (go to question 9)

8. Do you depend mainly on the glossary in translating items available in the glossary?
A yes B no

9. In translating English reports on a newly happened event in China, you follow ____ to refer to the event and
the participants of the event
A the mainstream media, e.g. the state TV stations and newspapers
B the literal translation of the ST
C your own creation D the free translation of the ST
E other method(s): ____________________

10. In translating foreign reports on events happened in or related to China, how do you handle an element with
connotation that is negative or not friendly to Chinese government or Chinese people?
A keep it as it B lower the negative sense
C replace it with a neutral element D omit
E other methods: _____________
 562 L. Pan

11. Why do you handle it in the way as your choice indicated in 10?
A to be faithful to the original reports B for consideration of the target reader
C to follow instruction in the style manual D the values and beliefs of the mainstream
E to follow the government stance F out of self-consciousness

12. Do you take the possible reader’s possible reaction to the event into consideration in translation news
on China?
A Yes B No

13. Please select the stance you consider most suitable in translating news on domestic affairs
A the stance as in the ST
B the stance of the Chinese government to the event
C being neutral and balanced
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

D the stance of the Chinese people to the event

E your own value and judgement
F other: ____________________________________

14. Please choose five factors that you consider have the greatest influence on translating sensitive news or
sensitive elements in the news?
A the government stance;
B the values and beliefs of the mainstream in China;
C the country’s news policy and regulations;
D Chinese reader’s attitude and expectation;
E the editor’s instructions;
F the stance in the original report;
G the instructions in the style manual and the requirements of RNN
H other (Please specify) _______________________________

15. Please rank your choices in question 14 according to the degree of their influence on your news translation
practice: 1)_______2)_______3)______4)______5)________

16. What’s your understanding of faithful translation in rendering news texts for RN?
A the translated parts corresponding to the original in terms of hard facts only
B the translated parts corresponding to the original in terms of both hard facts and stance
C the translated parts corresponding to the original in every aspect, including facts, stance and connotations, etc.
D beside C, the translated parts corresponding to the original in sentence structures
E other: __________________________________________________________________
 Perspectives 563

Assumption related to the negative foreign reports very likely unlikely totally
on China likely unlikely
17. You assume most of the Chinese readers
A accept everything in international reports
on China
B are unable to avoid the influence of negative
and biased news on China and need guidance
C can distinguish bias
18. You think the negative coverage of China is
caused by
A most Western media’s general biased
perspectives in reporting China
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

B the bias due to ideological difference

C the bias due to cultural difference
D the bias due to the differences in social
realities
E deliberate stress of the negative side of China
F difference in reporting perspectives
H general journalistic practice, and is
acceptable
Thank you.
--End—
 564 L. Pan

Appendix 3. Summary of the questionnaire responses

1. Ways for sensitive expressions and responsible factors

A B C D E
9.Way of referring a newly happened event in China and the 11 24 1
participants of the event:
Remark:
A the mainstream media, e.g. the state TV stations and newspapers
B the literal translation of the ST all are
C your own creation possible
D the free translation of the ST
E other method(s): ____________________
10. Way of handling an element with connotation that is negative or 32 2 1
not friendly to China?
Remark:
A keep it as it B lower the negative sense
C replace it with a neutral element D omit depend on
E other methods: _____________ purpose
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

11. Reason of handling it in the way you indicated in 10? 31 2 1

A to be faithful to the original reports
B for consideration of the target reader
C to follow instruction in the style manual
D the values and beliefs of the mainstream
E to follow the government stance
F out of self-consciousness

2. Top concerns in translating China related news

A B C D E F G H
12. Take the target reader’s response to the event into 10 25
consideration?
A Yes B No
13. stance most suitable in translating news on China 33 1 1
A keep the stance as in the ST
B follow the stance of the Chinese government to the event
C be neutral and balanced
D follow the stance of the Chinese people to the event
E follow your own value and judgement
F other: ____________________________________
14. five factors considered as top concerns: 18 16 25 9 10 33 25 6
A government stance;
B values and beliefs of the mainstream in China;
C country’s news policy and regulations;
D Chinese reader’s attitude and expectation;
E editor’s instructions;
F stance in the original report;
G requirements of RNN and instructions in its style manual
H other (Please specify) __________________
 Perspectives 565

3. Diversified understandings of faithful translation

A B C D E F G
15. Please rank the your choices in question 14 1st 2 30 1
according to the degree of their influence on the
translator’s practice 2nd 4 2 6 2 1 11
1)_______2)_______3)______4)______5)_______ 3rd 2 5 6 1 5 2 4

16. What’s your understanding of faithful translation in 4 4 18 9

rendering news texts for RNN?
A the translated parts corresponding to the original in terms
of hard facts only
B the translated parts corresponding to the original in terms
of both hard facts and stance
C beside B, the translated parts corresponding to the
original in connotations and tone, etc..
D beside C, the translated parts corresponding to the
Downloaded by [University of Bristol] at 07:17 21 October 2017

original in sentence structures

E other: __________________________________

4. RNN’s translators’ assumptions about the Chinese reader’s response to international reports on China:
17. Chinese reader’s response to international reports very likely unlikely totally no
(34 respondents) likely unlikely answer
A. accept everything in international reports on China 0 3 23 6 2
B. unable to avoid bad influence of the negative and 11 8 15 2
biased news on China and need guidance
C. can distinguish bias 6 18 9

5. RNN’s translators’ assumptions about international reports on China

18.Translators’ attitude and assumptions very likely unlikely totally no
(34 respondents) likely unlikely answer
Bias on China 19 6 9
Reasons of the bias ideological difference 21 8
(multiple ) cultural difference 26 7
national difference 23 6
Negative reports on intentionally stressed 7 8 17 2
China different reporting perspective 2 22 8 2
Negative reports normal and acceptable 10 23 1