The School of English and International Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) held a high-level forum on the effectiveness evaluation and mode exploration of international discourse translation with Chinese characteristics on July 23.

A high-level forum on evaluation of the effectiveness and mode exploration of international discourse translation with Chinese characteristics is held online by the School of English and International Studies at BFSU on July 23. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

The event brought together 17 well-known experts in the fields of journalism, communication and translation and consisted of 10 keynote speeches, attracting 655 participants.

The opening ceremony was presided over by Zhang Jian, dean of the School of English and International Studies at BFSU.

Strengthening China’s international communication, expression and impact in a global context and enhancing its national image are currently strategic priorities of the country and will remain so in the future, said Sun Youzhong, member of the standing committee of the CPC BFSU committee and vice-president of the university, in his opening speech.

These goals are also vital for the country’s philosophy and social science research to serve national strategic needs in the new era, and are key issues in such disciplines as politics, communication, cross-cultural research and translation studies, Sun added.

Yang Ping, editor-in-chief of the Chinese Translators Journal, Guo Ke, a professor at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), Hou Yingzhong, a professor at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Li Yu, a director of the International Communication Planning Bureau at China Media Group (CMG), and Wu Yun, a professor at Tongji University, delivered keynote speeches. They focused on the translation practice of discourses with Chinese characteristics, public opinion topic confrontation between China and the United States, international communication effect evaluation in the smart era, the international communication effectiveness of CMG, and audience and operation mechanisms in external communication.

Huang Youyi, executive vice-president of the Translators Association of China, Shi Xu, a professor at Hangzhou Normal University, Yang Mingxing, a professor at Zhengzhou University, Hu Kaibao, a professor at SISU, and Qin Hongwu, a professor at Qufu Normal University, elaborated on missions of translation and international communication, the characteristics of China's diplomatic discourses in the new era, construction of the discourse system of major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, international communication studies on core diplomatic concepts in academic literature and the design of an evaluation model for communication effectiveness.

The keynote speech session was chaired by Gao Jinping, a professor at BFSU, Wang Shaohua, a professor at Nanjing Normal University, Bao Xiaoying, a professor at SISU, and Huang Libo, a professor at Xi'an International Studies University.

In his final remarks, professor Zhang Wei at the School of English and International Studies at BFSU stressed the necessity of discourse translation with Chinese characteristics from an interdisciplinary, multi-angle and in-depth perspective, and called for closer inter-school and school-enterprise cooperation to ensure improvement of research quality in relevant fields.

Emphasizing the evaluation of the actual effectiveness of Chinese discourses' external translation and communication, the forum discussed the connotation and nature of Chinese discourses, principles and strategies of Chinese discourses' external translation, specific theories and methods for effect and quality evaluation in the field, and, in particular, intrinsic elements that determine the effectiveness of external translation and international communication of Chinese discourses.