Ting Yiu
Writes about hybridity, transnationalism and diaspora identities.
Location Stockholm Sweden
Activity
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Ting Yiu made a comment
This brings up an argument about the myth of language purity that is now widely criticised. There is no longer one original kind of English - there are multiple "Englishes" that exist in their own right, whether through creolisation, colonisation etc. Just like the third spaces (Said, Spivak etc), post-colonial languages are self-standing languages. To regard...
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Ting Yiu made a comment
I really like linking the idea of the "third space" - ideas that Edward Said, Salman Rushdie, Gyatri Spivak and other post-colonial theorists have explored in literature - to multilingualism or bilingualism. Bodies in exile or in diaspora must negotiate multiple spaces of belonging. They are not fully from the home country, nor fully accepted into the host...
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@PascaleMongin I agree with the "act of resistance", for instance, my mother tongue is Cantonese, but in Hong Kong, there is increasing pressure from the government to teach in Mandarin. Given the political situation between Hong Kong and China, Mandarin is seen as a "colonizer" or "rulers" language. Speaking Cantonese and keeping it alive is definitely a form...
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@LoredanaPolezzi Thank you for sharing! This version was absolutely beautiful, and the setting they played in equally magical.
Learning that the lead singer comes from an Anglophone household, and only learned Arabic and French later in life makes this all the more impressive!
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Ting Yiu made a comment
This is such an interesting area of translation that has had major societal implications. The impact of conversionism especially in the global south has been a double edged sword. While missionaries (especially Jesuit priests in China from 16th Century onwards) have played an integral role in translating political and religious texts, fostering academic...
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Ting Yiu made a comment
Treating each instance of translation individually as they require different standards of ethics, morality, different amounts of direct translation vs translation of meaning. Proper respect of the source text and restraint in adding the translators own morals and judgements (which one must absolutely not do such as in medical or legal translations, but can be...
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@paolalunghi Completely agree. It is such a critical time to practice moral ethics in times of crisis. I've been following corona since December as HK was on the front line of extracting information from China. Due to the current political crisis in HK, any information coming out of China was heavily scrutinized in our independent media. There was a lot of...
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@LoredanaPolezzi Yes, I believe that was entirely their rationale. While it came from a deep place of fear, the driving force behind it was intra-cultural discrimination - in the days that followed, this was well documented within China itself with people from Wuhan being shunned, physically assaulted in other cities, and forcibly locked into their homes....
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@LoredanaPolezzi I totally agree. Issues such as these reveal deeply rooted historical biases and - from a macro scale - unmask the dynamics of the global north vs the global south. From a micro scale, it asks us to examine issues of caste and class. I can't quite remember which study it was, but it looked at the constructed perceptions of power in authority....
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Ting Yiu made a comment
Icelandic band "Kaleo" influenced by Americana, Delta Blues & Folk. Most songs feature American themes, as if plucked from straight from heartland America. Their song "Broken Bones" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOletMMI0B4) first introduced me to their music. I listened assuming they were American. The song addresses familiar themes in Delta Blues music...
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Ting Yiu made a comment
Even though the even is held at the British School in Rome, I believe the source text to be Italian. The two courses are situated within the Italian context - a "transnational Italy" that centres Italy with other nationalities in the surrounding periphery. Additionally, it speaks of translation in "Modern Italian Cultures" - again, centring on Italy as the...
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Ting Yiu made a comment
This is a very good initiative and should be replicated in other countries - not only those with multiple internal languages, but countries with high volumes of immigration to ensure everyone has access to adequate healthcare. In Sweden, there was a tragic case of medical malpractice where a woman and her baby died in childbirth from inadequate translation....
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Ting Yiu made a comment
Translation to me is like travelling between multiple worlds and universes. If we hold that there are parallel universes that are concurrently existing at the same time as ours, then translators are able to cohabit these worlds, sometimes, at the same time, sometimes, moving back and forth, in liminal spaces, somethings negotiating their differences....
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Ting Yiu made a comment
Recently encountered a contemporary example of translation (or rather, lack of translation) that mixes geopolitics, immigration, and public health. Amid the rise of coronavirus here in Sweden, a mainland Chinese owned noodle shop in Western Sweden posted a notice in Simplified Mandarin barring any customers from Mainland China from entering. It explicitly...
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Ting Yiu made a comment
Lu Xun was one of the most famous writers of modern China. His works in both vernacular and classical Chinese made him a leading figure in Chinese translation theory, dedicating his life to fighting irresponsible translation with a particular focus on literary faithfulness to the source text. He regarded translation as a form of creative work, but separate...
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Ting Yiu made a comment
Penalty Charge Notice (PCN): Issued on 03/05/2016 from 08:58 to 08:59 am
Vehicle colour: Black
Tax disc: 1111 1111 1111A penalty of £50 is to be paid within 28 days of receiving this notice (by 31/05/2016). A 50% early payment discount will be applied if the penalty is paid within 14 days (by 17/05/2016).
DO NOT PAY THE CIVIL ENFORCEMENT OFFICER....
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Ting Yiu made a comment
I prefer the Welsh version, though this might be confirmation bias. I listened to the English one first but had to strain to understand the lyrics regardless. Whereas with the Welsh version, I knew I couldn't understand the lyrics anyway and instead was able to sit back and enjoy the musicality and composition rather than solely focus on the lyrics. The sounds...
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Ting Yiu replied to Mikayla Jane Myskow
I tried the word for "rice" in Swedish, English, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. For both European languages, the word "rice" denotes both the uncooked grain and the cooked foodstuff. Most images were of bowls or plates of cooked white rice. However in Traditional (Hong Kong / Taiwanese usage) and Simplified Chinese (China / other parts of the...
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Ting Yiu made a comment
Examples from my transnational upbringing and multicultural family life: In many parts of Asia and the Middle East, it is customary to refuse offers of food several times before finally succumbing ie. if someone offers you an extra serving of food, you say no until you accept. It's an interesting cultural quirk that alleviates social embarrassment for both...
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@ElisabettaAngeli I agree to a certain extent, however, as the course resources have demonstrated, this occurs in degrees. Legal, medical and technical translations absolutely require accuracy as close as possible to the source material. Literary and artistic translations on the hand occupy a more liminal space. Depending on the subject, translations can be...
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@EllieS there is no reference, this is my personal definition based on my interpretation of the coursework so far, and the use of translation in my daily life.
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@IsabelvonSassen language can be verbal, but also non-verbal through shared cultural signs and symbols and their various interpretations, language can be based on body language or cultural nuances, as well as intercultural definitions.
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Ting Yiu made a comment
Translation is the act of conveying meaning between more than one medium of language. At it's most basic, it operates on keeping the fidelity of the source. The working reality of translation operates on a greyer scale where the translator must make adjustments based on cultural, political, economic or social considerations to arrive at a final product that...
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Ting Yiu made a comment
Its Ben, a giggle mesh. Son, a thumb. I pass ere'.
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Ting Yiu made a comment
The differences between intralingual and intersemiotic translation are fascinating. Translation & interpretation happen in daily life without us noticing, especially individuals who are multi-lingual and must code-switch - almost seamlessly - between different languages and different social/cultural/economic/political settings.
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Ting Yiu made a comment
Hello everyone,
I have a varied upbringing which has contributed to my love of languages and literature. I was born in Hong Kong, raised in New Zealand and have settled in Sweden. I speak English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Swedish. I am a writer primarily writing in English but am interested in literary and commercial translation in my language combinations. -
Ting Yiu made a comment
Writing is at once painful, necessary, beautiful and inexplicably linked to who I am. It's the one thing that nourishes me creatively and entirely - as an art form, a self expression and a demonstration of humanity. If I stopped doing it, something vital in me would disappear. Like they say, writing is as easy as sitting down at your desk and bleeding all over...