Translation in China as a form of technical communication rethinking social roles of technical communication in the current political and economic contexts in China /

by Sun, Kang.

Gary Heba, Advisor This thesis identifies Chinese university situations specific to the transfer of technical communication to China, especially the relationship between general socio-economic settings in China and the influences these general settings have on the university disciplinary structure changes. The objective of this research is to reveal openings in translation discipline as a shell for technical communciation to merge with. The necessities for the merger and the reasons for choosing translation as the right discipline are analyzed through the conception of institutionalization by Berger and Luckman and the theory of power relations by Michel de Certeau. Earlier attempts of U.S. technical communication to reach China are reanalyzed to expose both accomplishments and problems in these efforts. In order to show the openings of translation discipline for technical communication, a survey has been conducted among Chinese translation professionals to reveal tensions in the development of translation theories and practices. It is concluded that the merger of technical communication with translation can both gain technical communication a pivotal status of being a discipline in Chinese universities and solve some problems of the translation field. More importantly, such a merger offers a futureoriented perspective of development for the merged discipline to ride more successfully the stablly growing Chinese economic growth. iii To my Grandfather, who has taught me how to think; and my Grandmother, whose diligence is easy to see, but takes a lifetime to live up to. iv