Abstract
This introduction discusses interpreters’ multiple roles and agency in war and their identity crisis due to their national and ethnic identity. It argues that interpreters’ multi-tasking reflects the diverse needs of linguists in war situations, and it is often the target of military interpreter training. Drawing from Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice (Outline of a Theory of Practice, trans. Richard Nice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977 [1972]; Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, trans. Richard Nice, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1984 [1979]; Language and Symbolic Power, trans. Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991), it reconstructs the social space for interpreters during the Second Sino-Japanese War in order to contextualize and analyze these interpreters’ positioning and practice when affiliated to different political and military powers (e.g., the Japanese forces, the Chinese KMT government and the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]), highlighting the significance of a joint consideration of interpreters’ diversified socio-cultural backgrounds and their interactions with different political powers in society.
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Notes
- 1.
The interpreter’s name has specific connotations: the literal translation of hancheng 汉臣is “subject of the Han people [the Chinese people]”, in contrast to the label hanjian (汉奸, the one who betrays the Han people) discussed later in this book.
- 2.
A translated transcript of the Chinese KMT government’s sentencing of Dong Hancheng, the interpreter, to death in the film, Devils on the Doorstep (Jiang 2000). All translations used in this book are my own, unless otherwise specified.
- 3.
There may be some dispute over the starting date of this war given that the Chinese KMT government did not officially declare war with Japan until July 1937. This issue has been much discussed by Chinese historians, many of whom contend that the war began on September 18, 1931, when the Japanese forces provoked the Manchurian Incident in China. In light of my later discussion of interpreting in occupied North China, this book considers the war as encompassing everything from the September 18, 1931, incident to the Japanese surrender in the Chinese theatre during September 1945.
- 4.
Despite the similarity of the English translations of the two Chinese titles for interpreters, fanyi guan and yiyuan, they differ in terms of power and position. The word guan in fanyi guan implies that the interpreter is an officer with a military rank, while yuan in yiyuan is only a general reference to government or army staff, such as secretaries, typists, and other clerks.
- 5.
According to Hanyu Da Cidian《汉语大词典》 (A Dictionary of the Chinese Language) (2005), tongyi 通译means “互译两方语言使通晓” (to translate for two parties who do not understand each other). In Kangxi Zidian《康熙字典》 (the Kang Xi Dictionary) (2002), one definition of tong is “凡人往來交好曰通”(good communication and relationships among people).
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Guo, T. (2016). Introduction. In: Surviving in Violent Conflicts. Palgrave Studies in Languages at War. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46119-3_1
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