Is China's translation market flourishing?
The answer is "yes" from an international forum on the
translation industry held in Shanghai on May 28 and 29.
But we heard a different point of view from Alfred Feng,
managing director of Linguitronics (LT) Co Ltd, the largest
Taiwan-invested translation agency in Shanghai.
"A poll by the Localization Industry Standards Association
(LISA) shows that the output value of China's translation sector
hit 10 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion) in 2003, while official
statistics indicate the figure to be four times that," Feng said in
an exclusive interview with china.org.cn.
"All signs suggest that there exists a huge and rapidly growing
language service market in the mainland," he continued.
"Nonetheless, we should be fully aware of the problems that
obstruct the further development of the industry.
"Far from a mature market, a majority of translators in the
mainland are doing 'one-way' translation -- translating other
languages into Chinese," he pointed out.
Elite Translation Co Ltd is LT's Taiwan-based parent company
founded by Feng in 1992. Citing it as an example, Feng said its
annual turnover of US$5 million was on a fifty-fifty basis -- 50
percent from translating foreign languages into Chinese and 50
percent from translating Chinese into foreign languages. He
described the former as "localization" and the latter
"globalization."
The goal of globalization achieved through translation has
resulted in Taiwan-made products being familiar to overseas
customers. Most mainland enterprises lagged far behind their Taiwan
counterparts in terms of management strategies and industrial
distribution on a global basis. "They are not ready to compete in
the world market," Feng said. "The unbalanced translation service
mirrors the current situation."
In 2002 Feng set up LT in Shanghai. In the past four years he
has witnessed at least two local translation agencies going public.
"It all happened in a very short space of time," he said, "from
their issuing stocks to incurring debts, delisting and eventually
closing down. Actually, everything was predictable from the day
they were listed."
Translation is not a sector in which people can become rich
overnight, Feng stressed. However, too many entrepreneurs,
reluctant to get down to hard work, have dreamed of making big
money with a small investment. For instance, no one seemed to have
taken any interest in importing technology, establishing standards
for the industry, formulating management principles and tactics,
training professionals and the like, Feng noted.??
Equipped with capital and advanced managerial experience, Feng
originally intended to carry out his ambitious plan in Shanghai --
China's biggest economic center. Nonetheless, he felt disappointed
very soon because "we couldn't employ qualified translators."
In his company Feng has insisted that only native speakers be
used to translate Chinese into other languages. Mainland employees,
whose monthly salary Feng said is much higher than the average of
most people in the city, are required to do the reverse
translations.
"Though holding different kinds of qualification certificates
issued by their schools, they're far from professional
translators," Feng said. "Poor reading comprehension, plus a lack
of basic knowledge in specialist subjects, has made many of them
incompetent for translation work."
"We have no alternative but to spend one year or so improving
their foreign languages and then another three to five years
broadening the range of their knowledge," he continued.
"Unfortunately, all these remedial measures are of no avail to help
improve their mother language."
In fact, many domestic and even overseas enterprises have been
shocked to witness Chinese students' low writing ability in their
own language, according to Feng. He blamed this on the country's
education system.
Eager for quick results and instant profits, a large number of
the schools have been happy to grant credentials after offering
short-term training courses. Recently they have become interested
in training simultaneous interpreters. "Actually, within the
translation industry the output value of simultaneous
interpretation only accounts for 2-3 percent of the business," Feng
noted.
These are short-sighted acts and not aimed at creating truly
competent personnel, he said.
"Qualified translators need to have encyclopedic knowledge and
therefore their training takes much longer than for lawyers,
accountants or even physicians," Feng said. "As the saying goes,
'It takes ten years to grow trees, but a hundred to cultivate
people.' However, many of our schools don't even want to 'waste'
the ten years for tree-planting. It has long since been borne out
by history that a desire for quick success, in the end, can only
spoil things."
Feng's company is planning to open a joint-ventured training
center in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, to train more professional
translators.
Strictly speaking, translation as an industry has just made a
start on the mainland. "I don't have a cure-all for the above
problems," Feng admitted. "As China becomes integrated into the
world economy, hopefully the process will become an eye-opener for
entrepreneurs who are still learning the ropes bit by bit. Fewer
daydreams about becoming rich, more practical deeds, then a
regulated and healthy market can be established."
(China.org.cn by staff reporter Shao Da, July 3, 2006)
