Nana Sato-Rossberg

This collection examines how linguistically diverse diaspora communities experienced and translated the COVID-19 pandemic in London, exploring nuances of difference across them to better understand how these communities mediate public health discourses in the globalized city. Drawing on scholarship from cultural translation and an emic approach, the volume features rich and varied perspectives on the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic from scholars working and living in over a dozen Asian and African language communities in the city. Building on data from online surveys and face-to-face-interviews with almost 200 community members, the book charts how information about the pandemic was disseminated across these different minority communities and in turn, how these communities understood and translated it into their own cultural framework and against prevailing public discourses. The volume also looks forward to the recovery process and the needs of these communities, reinforcing the value of a socio-cultural translation approach in better understanding how to support these communities in the wake of global health crises moving forward. This book will be of interest not only to scholars in translation studies, intercultural communication, crisis communication, cultural studies, and post-colonial studies, but also to public health practitioners and community leaders.

Japan is often regarded as a 'culture of translation'. Oral and written translation has played a vital role in Japan over the centuries and led to a formidable body of thinking and research. This is rooted in a context about which little information has been available outside of Japan in the past. The chapters examine the current state of translation studies as an academic discipline in Japan and a range of historical aspects (for example, translation of Chinese vernacular novels in early modern times, the role of translation in Japan's modernization, changes in stylistic norms in Meiji-period translations, 'thick translation' of indigenous Ainu place names), as well as creative aspects of translation in modern and postwar Japan. Other chapters explore contemporary phenomena such as the intralingual translation of Japanese expressions embedded in English texts emanating from diasporic contexts, the practice of pre-translation or writing for an international audience from the outset, the innovative practice of reverse localization of Japanese video games back into Japanese, and community interpreting practices and research.

Japan is often regarded as a 'culture of translation'. Oral and written translation has played a vital role in Japan over the centuries and led to a formidable body of thinking and research. This is rooted in a context about which little information has been available outside of Japan in the past. The chapters examine the current state of translation studies as an academic discipline in Japan and a range of historical aspects (for example, translation of Chinese vernacular novels in early modern times, the role of translation in Japan's modernization, changes in stylistic norms in Meiji-period translations, 'thick translation' of indigenous Ainu place names), as well as creative aspects of translation in modern and postwar Japan. Other chapters explore contemporary phenomena such as the intralingual translation of Japanese expressions embedded in English texts emanating from diasporic contexts, the practice of pre-translation or writing for an international audience from the outset, the innovative practice of reverse localization of Japanese video games back into Japanese, and community interpreting practices and research.