On the morning of August 20, 2019, ACLR held a seminar on Standards for the Chinese Translation of World Languages and Related Proper Names in Qingchang Hall on the second floor of Multi-functional Building, BLCU. More than 30 experts and scholars from universities, research institutions, publishing houses and government departments attended the seminar.
At the outset, Li Yuming, Director of ACLR, introduced the origin and main content of the book series The Documentation of World Languages. He then pointed out that the main purpose of the seminar was to pool wisdom of experts and scholars to define and determine the standards for Chinese translation of proper names, making them supportive and effective in the long term in translating proper names.
At the seminar, Huang Xing, Honorary Researcher of ACLR, Li Xuejun, Director of the Proper Names Translation Office of Xinhua News Agency, Tong Xiaohua, Deputy Inspector of Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, Wang Gangyi, Former Deputy Director of China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, Gao Yu, Director of the Translation Office of the Institute of Geonames of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Liu Qing, Deputy Director of China National Committee for Terms in Sciences and Technologies, Zhou Hongbo, Editor-in-Chief of the Commercial Press, Wang Mingyu, Former Vice President of Tianjin Foreign Studies University respectively delivered keynote speeches on the following topics: Standards for the Chinese translation of world language names, Proper names translation principles, Norms and principles for proper names approval and publishing.
In the discussion session, the participants gave talks and discussed around the topics and made constructive suggestions.
The seminar also proposed establishing the Experts Committee on the Chinese translation standards for world languages and related proper names. Its main responsibilities are to draw up standard for the Chinese translation of proper names such as world languages and region names, nation names, religion names, institution names, and literature names, and to make it national standard and even ISO 9001 international standard; to establish a proper name database consisting of world languages, region names, nation names, religion names, institution names, literature names and other relevant names; to make a resource sharing plan among member institutions; to serve as a think tank and offer suggestions for national guidelines and policies on languages; and to guide The Documentation of World Languages, etc.
The book series The Documentation of World Languages was initiated and managed by ACLR. It mainly introduces the basic status of languages, language policies and planning, language education, language life of countries or regions and international organizations. The series is expected to play an important role in the preservation and promotion of human civilization and in barrier-free communications among all countries in the world.
