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China’s Emergency Language Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic—Status Quo, Problems, and Solutions

Way to Translation / 2022,2(4): 36-50 / 2023-07-18 497 469

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• Authors: Xu Mianjun¹ Zhao Tianyuan² Deng Juntao³
• Information:

  1. Faculty of English Language and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou; 
  2. Graduate School of Translation and Interpreting, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing;
  3. Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan

• Keywords:
  COVID-19; Emergency language services (ELS); Emergency translation; Emergency interpreting; Language rescue; China
• Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has struck the whole world and posed great challenges to emergency language services (ELS), a much-neglected field of study in China. During the fight against the pandemic, ELS responded quickly to the unprecedented demands by mobilizing all possible means to facilitate doctor-patient communication and cater to other people’s various needs. This study, by relying on desktop research and semi-structured interviews with people directly or indirectly involved in ELS, tries to explore the status quo, features, and inadequacies of China’s ELS during the COVID-19 pandemic and offters suggestions for its future development. ELS has tremendously facilitated China’s fight against the pandemic, especially in emergency translation, emergency interpreting, emergency publicity, emergency consultation, and emergency online education, during which technologies have played a vital role. However, due to the unexpected and serious nature of the disaster and China’s lack of related experience in ELS, there is still much room for improvement in laws and regulations, national leadership, talent banks, talent training, ELS for special groups of people, and technological support. This study is hoped to share the merits and demerits of China’s ELS experience with the international community, boost its further development, and enrich its research content.
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.35534/wtt.0204006
• Cite: Xu Mianjun，Zhao Tianyuan，Deng Juntao．China’s Emergency Language Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic—Status Quo, Problems, and Solutions［J］．译道，2022，2（4）：36-50．