From June 16th to June 19th, 2023, “Symposium on Translating the Humanities and Technologizing Translation: Translation Master Lectures cum International Conference on Translation, Culture and Technology” organized by Hong Kong Translation Society, the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University(HKPU) was held in HKPU, and Prof. Song Meihua of the Discipline Team from Department of Translation and Interpretation attended the symposium with three postgraduates majored in translation and interpretation.

The international symposium aims to gather scholars, researchers, professionals and scientific and technological service providers from all over the world to jointly explore new ideas and discoveries in the field of translation research. The theme of the symposium is the profound impact of translation and translation technology on advancing the humanities as well as facilitating cultural exchanges around the world. It showcases the development of an electronic platform for oral and translation teaching, self-directed learning, and practice aimed at addressing the challenges of the artificial intelligence era, emphasizing the importance of drawing experience and wisdom from senior experts in the field of translation studies.

In the morning of 17th, all participants attended the opening ceremony and the conferment ceremony of Honorary Fellowship of the Hong Kong Translation Society in Lecture Theatre 2 of the HKPU. The Hong Kong Translation Society awarded the title of Honorary Fellowship on Prof. Chen Dehong of Guangxi University, Prof. Douglas Robinson of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), Prof. Tong Yuanfang of Tunghai University and Prof. Wang Kefei of Beijing Foreign Studies University. Honorary Fellow. Afterwards, these experts delivered keynote speeches on the theme of the symposium.

During the conference, Prof. Lynne Bowker from the University of Ottawa, Prof. Haidee Kotze from Utrecht University, Prof. Sara Laviosa from the University of Bari, and Prof. Jeremy Munday from the University of Leeds also gave keynote lectures on the topic of Artificial Intelligence and Translation from multiple perspectives.

In addition, Dr. David Poon of Hong Kong Baptist University, Dr. Kifan Cheung of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Dr. Tak-Chiu Lee of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Dr. Kang-Lung Lau of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Dr. Siu Sai-Cheong of The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong all shared their insights on technology-driven translation research and teaching from different perspectives.

This symposium covers 7 themes, including translation and culture, translation and literature, translation and technology, interpreting research, audiovisual translation and translation technology, translation pedagogy and translation quality assessment, corpus translation research, etc., and there are a total of 9 sub forums.

Prof. Song Meihua of our school gave a keynote speech on “Images of Tibetan Identity Emerging from the Selection of Contemporary Tibetan Literature for English Translation by the Anglophone World” in the Translation and Literature I sub-forum, and moderated the Translation Teaching Methodology and Translation Quality Assessment sub-forum. Three postgraduates also gave academic speeches in their respective sub-forums: Wang Yueyue, a graduate student of Translation Studies of Class 2021, gave a keynote speech on the topic of “The Transformation of Translator’s Cognitive Style under the Framework of Translation Cognitive Stylistics—The Case of Han Bin’s Translation of Explicit Metaphors of The White Horse and Our House” in the sub-forum of "Translation and Culture I". Liu Gaozhongyu, a graduate student of 2020 majoring in translation and interpretation, gave a keynote speech in the Translation and Literature II sub-forum with the title of “Study on English Version of The Art of War Translated by Samuel B.Griffith from the Perspective of Philological Hermeneutics”; Zhang Xinjie, a graduate student of 2020 majoring in Translation Studies, made a keynote presentation in the Translation Pedagogy and Translation Quality Assessment sub-forum with the title of “Translation Quality Assessment Model of National Railway Translation”. After the individual presentations, the participating experts and scholars asked questions or engaged in suggestions according to the contents of the papers, and discussed and exchanged ideas on the topics of each sub-forum.

In the afternoon of 19th, the closing ceremony of the conference was held in Lecture Theatre 2, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where Dr. Li Dechao delivered a closing speech. The three postgraduates expressed that the theme of this international conference was far-reaching and thought-provoking, especially the opportunity to communicate with experts and scholars from all over the world, which greatly inspired their own academic research. In the future, we will continue to work hard to forge ahead on the road of academic research and strive to be able to produce rich academic results.

Author: Liu Gaozhongyu

Reviewed by: Translation Discipline Team