ArticleTranslation Theories and Skills http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.11.001
Intangible Cultural Heritage External Publicity Translation from the Perspective of Understanding Contemporary China: A Case Study of Xing Porcelain Culture and Its Craftsmanship
Feng Xue1, Yu Zhang2,*
1School of Foreign Studies, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
2School of Foreign Languages, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300354, China.
*Corresponding author: Yu Zhang
Published: November 30, 2025
Abstract
Against the backdrop of the era-specific proposition “Understanding Contemporary China”, external publicity translation of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) proves pivotal to telling Chinese stories effectively and boosting national cultural soft power. As a representative national-level ICH, Xing porcelain firing crafts-manship transcends mere linguistic conversion in its external publicity translation—it bears the mission of conveying traditional craft wisdom, historical and cultural genes, and contemporary spiritual values. Focusing on Chinese-English translation practices of Xing porcelain culture and craftsmanship, this paper examines prevalent issues and room for improvement in current translations, such as inadequate interpretation of culture-loaded words, awkward conversion of literary expressions, and inconsistent craft terminology. It refines translation paths and methods tailored to cross-cultural communication of ICH, integrating theories of cultural narrative and multimodal communication to enhance the practicality of the research. By drawing on innovative translation experiences from other ICH categories, this paper offers actionable insights for promoting excellent traditional Chinese culture globally. This work aims to facilitate a China narrative system integrating Chinese and foreign perspectives, and strengthen the international discourse power of Chinese culture.
Keyword
Understanding Contemporary China; Xing Porcelain; Intangible Cultural Heritage; External Publicity Translation; Cross-Cultural Communication; Multimodal Translation
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Copyright
© 2025 by the author(s).
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not modified or adapted.
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How to cite this paper
Intangible Cultural Heritage External Publicity Translation from the Perspective of Understanding Contemporary China: A Case Study of Xing Porcelain Culture and Its Craftsmanship
How to cite this paper: Feng Xue, Yu Zhang. (2025). Intangible Cultural Heritage External Publicity Translation from the Perspective of Understanding Contemporary China: A Case Study of Xing Porcelain Culture and Its Craftsmanship. Translation and Foreign Language Learning, 1(4), 599-605.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.11.001