China has only one national translation association: The Translators Association of China, or TAC, which is charged with interpreting hundreds of languages. On April 20-21, TAC held its seventh congress at a weekend-long event in Beijing. Over 300 professionals in the translation industry attended the festivities, which are held only twice per decade. This year, the president of China International Publishing Group, Zhou Mingwei, was elected president of the executive committee, taking the reins from Li Zhaoxing.
Three lifetime achievement awards in translation were presented to He Zhaowu, Liang Liangxing and Hao Yun. In China, this is the most prestigious of translation awards. According to outgoing president Li, “Translation is becoming more important as China takes a more active role in the international community. In the past five years, TAC has held more than 100 translation workshops and seminars on translation, and we have seen a growing pool of talent join in.”
Keeping Pace with a Global Market
Both China and India are giving the United States a run for its money when it comes to worldwide economic domination, which makes it more critical than ever to boast quality translation services. The Publicity Department of the Community Party deputy head Jiang Jianguo says, “Translation is the art of communicating across cultural and language barriers. TAC, in the past decades, has played a leading role in promoting the development of translation industry in China and helped to convey China’s culture to the world. It will definitely play a more important role with more international communication between China and foreign countries.”
TAC was established in 1983 and is committed to safeguarding the interests of interpreters and translators around the country. Translation quality is of paramount importance, and TAC is dedicated to encouraging understanding among everyone in the language industry. It’s equal parts trade organization and academic society. According to the latest 2014 Report on China’s Translation from TAC, there were 18,788 Chinese businesses offering language services from 2012-2013, and the market is inching up 25 percent every year.
Worldwide Appeal
TAC estimates that translating Chinese into other languages makes up 54.4 percent of a translator’s workload — and 2011 was the first year more documents were being translated from Chinese languages rather than into Chinese languages. Over 90 percent of all Chinese translation companies say there is a staggering demand for translating documents from Chinese to other languages. The TAC Vice Executive President Huang Youyi says, “This is a result of China’s going-out strategy. Properly telling China’s stories and delivering China’s information to the world will be a crucial task for the translation industry.”
Interested in translating your documents from or to Chinese languages — or virtually any other language? Contact Verbatim Solutions for premium translation services today.
