Chinese Cultural Relics and Museums Translation Workshop

In 2023, the Chinese Cultural Relics and Museums Translation Workshop was planned and launched to facilitate the foreign translation of Chinese cultural relics and exhibition works. This initiative also sought to cultivate high-level multilingual translation professionals in the field of cultural relics and museums, promoting the cross-cultural interpretation of Chinese cultural relics and art as well as the exchange and mutual learning of civilizations across the world. The workshop attracted more than 260 young sinology scholars from over 40 countries and regions.

The workshop focused on the theme of "Chinese Cultural Relics and Museums" and was based on the regular displays and special exhibitions of bronzes, ceramics, paintings, calligraphy, costumes, and cuisines at the National Museum of China. It offered three innovative sections: "Chinese Culture Class", "Language Translation Class", and "Translation Practice of Exhibition Texts". They covered seven languages, including Arabic, English, French, Russian, Italian, Japanese, and Farsi.

Seven senior experts, scholars and curators in the field of cultural relics and museums were invited to share their expertise. Among them were Zhai Shengli, a research librarian from the Department of Display Work at the National Museum of China, Mei Songsong, an associate research librarian of the Department of Social Education, and Zhu Wanzhang, a research librarian of the Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Institute. Twelve senior Chinese and foreign experts and scholars were also invited to share their knowledge, including Professor Xue Qingguo, winner of the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding, Professor Wen Zheng and Professor Chen Ying, recipients of the Award of "Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy", Dr. Bazrafshan Amin, Founder of the Chinese Language Program of the Iranian Language Center, and Professor Nahed Abdulla Erahim from the Department of Chinese Language of the Faculty of Languages at Ain Shams University. These distinguished experts delivered a variety of themed lectures. In addition, a live convergence media immersive course on the topic of Ancient Chinese Costumes was also held at the National Museum of China.

The workshop placed emphasis on cultivating and improving the practical translation skills of the participants. Apart from the lectures on cultural subjects related to relics and museums and language exchange and translation classes, the workshop also included a special session on the practical translation of exhibition texts. The participants engaged in trial translations of selected excerpts from relevant exhibition introduction texts, which were then individually evaluated by the lecturers. Through this approach, the young sinologists learned to understand the "way" before diving into the "translation" itself. They interacted and practiced with each other to improve their translation skills, gaining insights into the differences in language, culture and customs. Furthermore, they explored the strategies for translating the names of cultural relics and sought operable translation strategies for culture-related texts.