Article published in:
The Journal of Internationalization and Localization
Vol. 6:2 (2019) ► pp. 86–107

Translation in the COVID-19 health emergency in Wuhan

A crisis manager’s perspective

| Municipal Government of Wuhan
Intercultural crisis communication in an interconnected and globalized world emphasizes the need for translation to be put in place as foreign nationals with cultural and linguistic barriers might rely on it to prepare for a possible crisis or make informed decisions when already affected by a crisis. However, translation is an underdeveloped tool in crisis management, particularly in China. Considering it a special branch of public service translation, the author investigates crisis translation by using a case study of the disruptive outbreak of novel coronavirus disease in Wuhan. Based upon the author’s first-hand experience as a crisis manager at the Office of Foreigner Affairs in the Municipal Government of Wuhan, this article describes how government translators with the help of external volunteer translators made language services available and accessible to affected foreign nationals in the response phase from 8 January 2020 to 7 April 2020. It analyses these translation-mediated activities from a crisis manager’s perspective. Despite the preliminary nature of the findings, which still call for further validation, it is hoped that insights from this article will be of interest to those who are engaged with crisis translation services and to those who research crisis translation.
Keywords: COVID-19 health emergency, crisis translation, crisis translators, crisis manager
Published online: 08 July 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/jial.00014.wan
References

References

Alexander, David E.
2016 How to Write an Emergency Plan. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press.Google Scholar
Arlikatti, Sudha, Lindell, Michael K., and Prater, Carla S.
2007 “Building Trust Among Community Stakeholders”, in Understanding and Responding to Terrorism by Durmaz, Huseyin, Sevinc Bilal, Sait Yayla Ahmet, and Ekici Siddik, 383–392. Washington DC: IOS Press.Google Scholar
Biel, Łucja
2011 “Training Translators or Translation Service Providers? EN 15038: 2006 Standard of Translation Services and Its Training Implications.” Journal of Specialised Translation 16: 61–76.Google Scholar
[ p. 106 ]
Cadwell, Patrick
2015 “Translation and Trust: A Case Study of How Translation was Experienced by Foreign Nationals Resident in Japan for the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake”. PhD dissertation. Dublin City University.Google Scholar
Chan, Jasper Fuk-Woo, Shuofeng Yuan, Kin-Hang Kok, Kelvin Kai-Wang To, Hin Chu, Jin Yang, Fanfan Xing, et al.
2020 “A Familial Cluster of Pneumonia Associated with the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Indicating Person-To-Person Transmission: A Study of A Family Cluster.” The Lancet 395: 514–523. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention
2019 Guidelines for Responding to Natural Disasters, Environmental Hazards and Health Emergencies of China (translated by the author). Accessed 19 April 2020. http://​www​.nhc​.gov​.cn​/jkj​/s7929​/201908​/8a3a166a2ecd4239a0740be1e85a003d​.shtml
Coyle, Diane, and Patrick Meier
2009 New Technologies in Emergencies and Conflicts: The Role of Information and Social Networks. UN Foundation-Vodafone Foundation Partnership, Washington, D.C. and London, UK.Google Scholar
Eriksson, Kerstin, and Allan McConnell
2016 “Contingency Planning for Crisis Management: Recipe for Success or Political Fantasy?”. Policy and Society 30: 89–99. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Federici, Federico M.
2016 Mediating Emergencies and Conflicts: Frontline Translation and Interpreting. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Federici, Federico M., Brian J. Gerber, Sharon O’Brien, and Patrick Cadwell
2019 The International Humanitarian Sector and Language Translation in Crisis Situations: Assessment of Current Practices and Future Needs. London; Dublin; Phoenix, AZ: INTERACT The International Network on Crisis Translation.Google Scholar
Federici, Federico M., Minako O’Hagan, Sharon O’Brien, and Patrick Cadwell
2019 “Crisis Translation Training Challenges Arising from New Contexts of Translation.” Cultus 12: 246–279.Google Scholar
Federici, Federico M., and Patrick Cadwell
2018 “Training Citizen Translators: Design and Delivery of Bespoke Training on the Fundamentals of Translation for New Zealand Red Cross.” Translation Spaces 7: 20–43. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, Henry W.
2008 Response to Disaster: Fact Versus Fiction and Its Perpetuation, 3rd ed. Lanham: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Fu, King-wa, James White, Yuen-ying Chan, Ling Zhou, Qiang Zhang and Qibin Lu
2010 “Enabling the Disabled: Media Use and Communication Needs of People with Disabilities during and after the Sichuan Earthquake in China.” International Journal of Emergency Management 7: 75–87. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hubei Government
2018 81% of 19,000 Foreigners Are Resident in Wuhan for Business Purpose and Most of Them Work in the Automobile Industry (translated by the author). Accessed 19 April 2020. https://​www​.hubei​.gov​.cn​/zwgk​/bmdt​/201801​/t20180108​_1241099​.shtml
Kamel, Boulos M. N., Estella M. Geraghty
2020 “Geographical Tracking and Mapping of Coronavirus Disease COVID-19/Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) Epidemic and Associated Events Around the World: How 21st Century GIS Technologies Are Supporting the Global Fight Against Outbreaks and Epidemics”. International Journal of Health Geographics. 19:1–12.Google Scholar
Munro, Robert
2013 “Crowdsourcing and the Crisis-Affected Community: Lessons Learned and Looking Forward from Mission 4636”. Journal of Information Retrieval 16: 210–266. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
[ p. 107 ]
Niska, Helge
2002 “Community Interpreter Training: Past, Present, Future”. In Interpreting in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities by Giuliana Garzone and Maurizio Viezz, 133–144. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
O’Brien, Sharon
2016 “Training Translators for Crisis Communication: Translators Without Borders as an Example.” In Mediating Emergencies and Conflicts. Frontline Translating and Interpreting, edited by Federico M. Federici. 85–111. Houndshill, Basingstoke, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
O’Brien, Sharon, Federico M. Federici, Patrick Cadwell, Jay Marlowe, and Brian Gerber
2018 “Language Translation During Disaster: A Comparative Analysis of Five National Approaches.” International journal of disaster risk reduction 31: 627–636. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
O’Brien, Sharon, and Patrick Cadwell
2017 “Translation Facilitates Comprehension of Health-Related Crisis Information: Kenya as an Example.” Journal of Specialised Translation 28: 23–51.Google Scholar
Santos-Hernández, Jenniffer M., and Betty Hearn Morrow
2013 “Language and Literacy.” In Social Vulnerability to Disasters, 2nd ed., by Deborah S. K. Thomas, Brenda D. Phillips, William E. Lovekamp and Alice Fothergill, 265–280. Florida: CRC Press.Google Scholar
Seeger, Matthew W.
2006 “Best Practices in Crisis Communication: An Expert Panel Process.” Journal of Applied Communication Research, 34: 232–244. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sellnow, Timothy L., and Matthew W. Seeger
2013 Theorizing Crisis Communication. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Taibi, Mustapha
2011 “Public Service Translation”. In The Oxford Handbook of Translation Studies, by Kirsten Malmkjaer and Kevin Windle, 214–227. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wu, Fan, Su Zhao, Bin Yu, Yan-Mei Chen, Wen Wang, Zhi-Gang Song, Yi Hu, et al.
2020 “A New Coronavirus Associated with Human Respiratory Disease in China.” Nature 579: 265–269. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Dreisbach, Jeconiah Louis & Sharon Mendoza-Dreisbach
2020. The integration of emergency language services in COVID-19 response: a call for the linguistic turn in public health. Journal of Public Health Crossref logo
Dreisbach, Jeconiah Louis & Sharon Mendoza-Dreisbach
2021. Unity in Adversity: Multilingual Crisis Translation and Emergency Linguistics in the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Open Public Health Journal 14:1 ► pp. 94 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 april 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.