Translation, culture and politics

Abstract

This article analyzes the election slogans of Hong Kong chief executives and the titles of their policy addresses since Hong Kong’s handover to mainland China in 1997, from the point of view of translation methods, cultural implications and reader responses. It finds that literal translation dominates in the translation of election slogans and policy address titles, that translated slogans and titles portray Hong Kong as a collectivist society with low power distance, and that choices between domestication and foreignization are dependent upon individual chief executives (or nominees). The article discusses the growing importance of the role of readers and proposes an inductive framework of interactive responses to represent the reality of political translation in the new era brought about by digitalization.