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Part of
Analysing Chinese Language and Discourse across Layers and Genres
Edited by Wei Wang
[Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse 13] 2020
► pp. 177–194

Chapter 10
Impact of power relations on news translation in China

A critical discourse analysis perspective

| The University of Sydney

Global news transmission relies on language and particularly on the services of translation. Decision making exists in every step of the translation process, for instance, from the text selection to the discursive expression, and from information transference to culture communication. This study examines the translation practice of news in Cankao Xiaoxi (Chinese: 参考消息), the most read Chinese daily run by the Chinese government that collects various news or information from international media, translates and reprints them in Chinese. This study outlines various powers that underline text manipulation in this state news agency and explores the impact of power relations on both the process and the product of news translation. Combining an ethnographic approach with a critical discourse analysis of news translation, this study investigates the institutional contexts and human agencies involved in the news making process, which lead to the manipulation of the news production. This study reveals that various powers determine how to shape the already shaped news via translating and that network of power relations underlying news translation in China is hierarchical. This hierarchy of power relations affords both macro and micro-analytical perspectives on the realisation of manipulation in news translation in China.

Keywords: news, translation, media, manipulation, power relations
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Background of this study
  • Method and data collection
  • Analysis
  • Power relations in news translation
    • Immediate power
    • Direct power
    • Indirect power
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scld.13.10xia
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