Quoting Chinese Political Discourse through Translation: An Analysis of Xi Jinping’s Climate Change Discourse in English-language News Media

Abstract

Climate change is a heated topic that attracts media and political attention. Previous research has analyzed political discourse using different approaches from various perspectives. However, few studies have investigated the recontextualization of Chinese political discourses in the mass media via translation. This study analyzes how President Xi Jinping’s discourses on climate change are translated and represented in the Chinese, British and American media. It draws on political discourse analysis and the narrative theory conception of quoting, including direct, indirect and mixed quotations. The study analyzes a selection of Xi’s translated quotations through manual coding and examines Chinese and English news outlets’ speech representation. The quotations are interpreted in their socio-political contexts and in relation to aspects such as journalistic conventions. The findings show that these factors contribute to the narrative shifts observed between institutional translation and news translation. The study provides insights into cross-cultural communication and the role of translation in shaping public opinion on important global issues such as climate change.