大卫·弗格森：跨语言的翻译政治话语传播，最重要的是传递信息，而不只是翻译文本。 比如，中国政治话语中常出现“科学”这个词，它一般被直译成“science”（英文中“科学”的名词）或是“scientific”（英文中“科学”的形容词）。但在英文中，“science”这个词是指自然科学，中国政治话语中的“科学”显然不是这个意思。对“科学发展观”的翻译就很值得探讨。“科学发展观”是中国发展战略中的一个重大调整，是从单纯的经济发展转型到一个将经济、社会、环境等因素综合考虑的协同发展战略，但若译作“the Scientific Outlook on Development”就难以精准表达这一战略的真正含义，外国人听了会觉得这是一项技术项目，是关于物理化学的。这就使得中国失去了将一项重大战略调整真实准确传达给世界的机会。
中国的很多政治话语是概念化的、抽象的，因此需要译者对其进行解构，将概念之下的具象含义传达给外国受众。其中一个很好的例子就是对“习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想”的翻译——Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics For a New Era。这一思想是由一系列发展观与政策组成的、长期存在并不断发展的重要思想，翻译时必须用词准确，以传达出其深远意义。 Socialism with Chinese Characteristics是“中国特色社会主义”的官方固定译文，但对“新时代”一词，最初的译文是“in the new era”，不过这一译法可能会让外国人误解为“新时代”是由外部力量施加给中国的，中国是在对此做出反应。最终经过谨慎斟酌，大家一致同意将“新时代”译为“for a new era”：通过将介词替换为for，以及将定冠词the替换为不定冠词a，就能够准确传递出中国是在引领和主导“新时代”，这才是与原文相一致的内涵。
相反地，将“加强党的建设”翻译成“Party Building”（party取“政党”义，building取“建设”义）就非常糟糕。“加强党的建设”是中国政治话语中常提到的，但如果把“Party Building”说给不了解中国政治话语的西方受众，他们第一反应是你在推介一个能带孩子去开生日派对的场地（因为party常用义为“派对”，building常用义为“建筑”）。综上所述，“加强党的建设”最好被翻译成“strengthen the party”。
大卫·弗格森：英语就是国际化语言，因此中国需要让其话语通过英语得到理解。80年前毛泽东在延安整风期间曾发表《反对党八股》，文章中毛泽东对中共的一些写作风格进行了批判。 2005年，时任浙江省委书记的习近平也曾在“之江新语”专栏发表系列短论，其中也提到好的文风应该是开门见山、直截了当、讲完即止，用尽可能少的篇幅，把问题说清、说深、说透，表达出丰富而深刻的思想内容。 中国政治话语的对外传播需采纳这些忠告。如“两个坚持”“三个代表”“四个自信”，翻译成英文就是the Two Upholds，the Three Represents，the Four Confidences，这都让外国民众摸不着头脑，也更无从知晓其重要性和深刻内涵。
大卫·弗格森（David W. Ferguson），中国外文局外文出版社荣誉英文主编，英国籍资深专家，《习近平谈治国理政》第一、二、三卷等领导人著作，《中国共产党尊重和保障人权的伟大实践》《人类减贫的中国实践》《抗击新冠肺炎疫情的中国行动》《中国的全面小康》《中国的民主》等政府白皮书，以及《中国共产党的历史使命与行动价值》等重点图书英文版翻译改稿人，荣获中国政府友谊奖、中华图书特殊贡献奖。
(Video Reporters: Xiao Sisi, Zhang Baokang, Zhou Hua; Video editor: Zhang Qiru, Liu Ruoshi) ■
— China’s poverty reduction miracle has given birth to a new field of study, according to the report titled “Chinese Poverty Alleviation Studies: A Political Economy Perspective” released by New China Research, the think tank of Xinhua News Agency.
— The report, drawing on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s discourses on poverty alleviation as the ideological and theoretical foundations, decodes the “winning formula” in China’s anti-poverty fight, explores the rationale behind the fight and discusses its global implications.
— The report summarized Xi’s discourses on poverty alleviation as “seven upholds”: upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China, a people-centric approach, joint actions to tackle challenges, a strategy for precision, self-reliance, shared development, and a realistic and pragmatic approach.
— The report summarized foreign experts’ views of Chinese inspirations for the world as “5Ds:” Determined Leadership, Detailed Blueprint, Development Oriented, Data-based Governance and Decentralized Delivery.
Stockholm, March.1 (Greenpost) — China’s history-making success in poverty alleviation has gone beyond established anti-poverty theories and can provide fresh perspectives and experiences for the global fight against poverty, said a research paper released on Sunday.
The poverty reduction miracle has given birth to a new field of study, according to the report titled “Chinese Poverty Alleviation Studies: A Political Economy Perspective” released by New China Research, the think tank of Xinhua News Agency.
The report, drawing on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s discourses on poverty alleviation as the ideological and theoretical foundations, decodes the “winning formula” in China’s anti-poverty fight, explores the rationale behind the fight and discusses its global implications.
“Based on our national conditions and following the law of poverty reduction, China has adopted a series of extraordinary policies and measures and constructed a whole set of systems covering policy, work and institutions, blazing a poverty reduction path and forming an anti-poverty theory with Chinese characteristics,” it cited Xi as saying.
The report summarized Xi’s discourses on poverty alleviation as “seven upholds”: upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), a people-centric approach, joint actions to tackle challenges, a strategy for precision, self-reliance, shared development, and a realistic and pragmatic approach.
Female employees make garments in a poverty alleviation workshop in Tongxin County, northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Feb. 24, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)
THE “WINNING FORMULA”
Over the past eight years, China’s final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. The country has met the poverty eradication target set in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule.
A “winning formula” in China’s poverty alleviation efforts was holding onto positive dialectical thinking and improving the pro-poor market mechanism under the guidance of the government, said the report.
In China, the “burden” of poverty has been turned into a source of potential, and human and natural resources in poor areas have become a means to achieve common development and prosperity, it said.
By capitalizing on local natural resources, many poverty-stricken areas have developed various businesses and subsequently boosted local economic growth and created job opportunities, the report finds.
From a political economy perspective, a key approach of China’s poverty reduction is to maintain the goal of national common prosperity by building a “pro-poor market” in which the government, market and society jointly work to emancipate the productivity of the poor and make them contributors to growth.
In precise poverty alleviation, the “visible hand” of a capable government is not a “restless hand” but an essential “enabling hand,” the report said, noting that an effective pro-poor market is not a distortion of the market, but a reconstruction of the market.
Private enterprises, social organizations, and individual citizens are the three new forces of poverty alleviation work in China, while wealthy locals, migrant workers and businessmen, and college graduates from poor areas in China have also played significant roles, the report noted.
Contracted family doctors from Zuolong Township Central Hospital visit a villager with chronic diseases in Zuolong Village, Zuolong Township of Langao County, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, July 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Xiao)
POWERFUL CULTURAL DRIVE
Throughout China’s poverty fight runs the Chinese traditional culture of helping the poor and those in need, as well as a “world sentiment” that calls for the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, according to the report.
Throughout the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization, the idea of common prosperity has been regarded as a quality of an ideal society, it said.
China is not only a modern success, but also an outstanding ancient civilization. China must build its future without abandoning its past, observes Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate in economics.
The report stressed that China’s poverty-alleviation experience and programs, based on practice and extensive international exchanges, have not only advanced poverty alleviation and development theories, but also reflected a “world sentiment” of building a community with a shared future for humanity.
Such a “world sentiment” has long been an important value for China to follow in promoting the cause of global poverty alleviation. China is committed to reaching out to others and helping the world.
This “global view,” which transcends ideology, the nation-state and political parties, is a “Chinese proposal” for promoting the cause of poverty reduction in the world, it said.
Aerial photo taken on Aug. 17, 2020 shows a photovoltaic power station, also a poverty-relief project, at the green industrial development park in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Hainan, northwest China’s Qinghai Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Long)
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE WORLD
Calling China a “learner, beneficiary and innovator of global poverty alleviation theories,” the report summarized foreign experts’ views of Chinese inspirations for the world as “5Ds:” Determined Leadership, Detailed Blueprint, Development Oriented, Data-based Governance and Decentralized Delivery.
“There is no doubt that poverty alleviation is a vivid manifestation of the leadership of the CPC,” the report highlighted the top leader’s determined will, which creates a strong national will and drives the allocation of resources, as well as the leadership of the 91-million-member CPC.
With the common goal of eradicating absolute poverty, several generations of Chinese leaderships have drawn strategic blueprints and led the nation in successive struggles, which ensured policy continuity and spurred the entire country to work together toward a unified goal.
Meanwhile, China has long prioritized economic development in its poverty fight, which is combined with proactive, precise poverty reduction practices that directly pass on the benefits of economic development to every poor household and eliminate poverty completely.
Villager Mouse Labo takes photos of a camping tent to be rented to tourists in Atulie’er Village, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, Nov. 23, 2019. Mouse Labo shares photos and videos about the tourism information of Autlie’er Village via livestreaming, a way to promote his hometown’s tourism. (Xinhua/Jiang Hongjing)
In the fight against poverty, the Chinese government has also attached particular importance to the development of big data and the digital economy and emphasized the application of advanced digital management, which made China’s poverty alleviation success possible in a relatively short period of time.
Last but not least, the report attributed the effective implementation of poverty alleviation policies to the “decentralized” nature of China’s governance structure, featuring many improvisations at subnational levels to implement national policies.
Besides experience sharing, China has committed itself to the global combat against absolute poverty by participating in assistance programs, supporting “capacity development” projects and advocating a shared-solutions approach, according to the report.
“China, based on its own experience and theoretical ideas in poverty alleviation, is giving back to the human cause of ending poverty and providing a new reference for other countries and regions,” it said.
(Video Reporters: Xiao Sisi, Zhang Baokang, Zhou Hua; Video editor: Zhang Qiru, Liu Ruoshi) ■
