This paper uses data from a qualitative study and a range of secondary sources to explore both the micro-level practices of real- time translation work and the macro context in which they occur. The aim of this paper is to explicate the nature of the translation work undertaken by a collective of actors to translate high-tech knowledge in multiple practical settings in responding to social and legitimacy pressures. In examining how the knowledge of constructing High-Speed- Rail (HSR) lines was translated into the Chinese context I draw a qualitative analysis to reveal the intricacies of the dynamic and ongoing translation work of high-tech knowledge and identify the patterns of the translation work as it develops. As such I contribute to the literature of Scandinavian institutionalist translation by first theorising the micro-practices actors undertaken, identifying the macro-level social entities, and secondly by relating them to a wave-type translation work - an evolving phenomenon. In doing so I argue that translation work in this distinctive socio-political context is dynamic in nature as the directions and outcomes of real- time translation work is a function of the ongoing energy – the collective interests which correspond with macro-level social entities.