On November 29, 1950, at a meeting of the UN Security Council, Mr. Wu Xiuquan, who headed the delegation for the People’s Republic of China (PRC), refuted the attacks by the US and Chiang Kai-shek’s regime and de nounced US aggression1. The speech was not scripted and was rendered into English by the interpreter for broadcast. Mr. Wu afterwards spoke highly of the interpreting being “smooth and accurate, with a considerable sense of national pride and particular vigor”. The acclaimed interpreter was none other than Madam Tang Sheng, who years later in 2012 won the Lifetime Achievement Award for Translating Culture, a prestigious award from the Translators’ Association of China (TAC) given to the interpreters and transla tors who have made outstanding contributions to China communicating with the world. In the early days of the PRC, interpreters were selected simply because, among the rank and file of the government structure, they were more fluent than others in speaking foreign languages, thanks to their earlier exposure to a native language-speaking environment. The role they played in the Armistice negotiations in Korea, their performance at the UN Security Council during its deliberations of the Taiwan issue in 1950, the contribution they made to the Geneva negotiations on Indochina in 1954, as well as the services they provided at the Bandung Conference in 1955 made them household names in China, and later on, some of them became the standard bearers of the profes sion, assuming a larger-than-life profile. Although they had never undergone training to become interpreters, they were “naturals”, as if they were born as interpreters. Madam Tang Sheng was among this rank. Prior to the launch, by China and the UN, of the United Nations Training Program for Chinese Interpreters and Translators in Beijing in 1979, there was no clear separation in China of interpretation and translation as two dis tinctly different areas of specialization, either in the training institutions or in practice. Accordingly, upon graduation from a foreign language program, students were expected to be able to work both as translators and interpret ers, depending on the exigencies. Concretely, they would work, under normal circumstances, as translators, and whenever the need for interpretation oc curred, some of those translators would be drafted to serve as interpreters. Once the assignment was over, they would return to their regular translation jobs. The fact that the Translators Association of China covers both transla tion and interpretation is elucidating, and the personal experience of Ms. Shi Yanhua, one of the top interpreters in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, is illustrative of the modus operandi of that time. In 1971, when the PRC regained its seat at the United Nations, del egates from Beijing started to speak Chinese at UN meetings – though often from prepared statements which had been pre-translated. The translation and interpretation services in the UN Secretariat are totally separate from each other, with different entrance exams, and the in-house interpreters at the time were not ready for the sudden shift, in particular given the afore mentioned lack of training. As China became more active in the UN and addressed meetings in Chinese in different settings, with greater frequency and sometimes without text, the need for interpreters specifically trained to work in the UN Secretariat assumed increasing urgency. In 1979, the UN Training Program in Beijing created separate training curricula for future staff translators and staff interpreters; this heralded the birth of a new and distinct profession. This volume focuses squarely on interpretation in China as a stand-alone occupation. It contains exclusive interviews with teachers and graduates of the UN program – and some of them are still active senior interpreters at the United Nations. Significant attention is also devoted to the long-standing cooperation between the EU and China in training conference interpreters, which originated approximately four decades ago. This cooperation mani fests itself in two distinct forms: the EU-China Interpreter Training Project (EUCITP) and the SCIC-University cooperation. Through these initiatives, young Chinese officials and university students in China have been provided with professional training in conference interpreting. Moreover, they have been afforded the opportunity to gain insights into EU institutions, to im merse themselves in an EU language environment, and to develop a height ened cultural awareness. Paul Brennan, the former Chief of the China Desk of the Directorate-General for Interpretation (DG SCIC), provides an elucida tion of SCIC’s in-house interpreter training program and shares his perspec tives on the inception and progression of EU-China cooperation in training conference interpreters over the years. In their interviews, all participants gen erously shared personal anecdotes from their work as interpreters. While their stories are fascinating to read, they also outline, collectively, the growth path of the profession as it unfurled in China – hence the historical and educational significance of the volume.
