Importance Of Background Knowledge In Consecutive Interpretation-A Case Study Of The Media Interview With Chinese-american Artist David Diao

During the time of globalization, interpretation, as the bridge of communication, has played an important role in cultural exchange. The cultural communication among different countries has become more frequent than ever before. Under such circumstances, interpretation has played an important role in enhancing cultural exchange and also set higher requirements on interpreters’ background knowledge.Although there are many articles on the role of background knowledge in interpretation, most of them center on interpretation concerning politics, economy, foreign affairs, etc., with few involved in art, especially painting.This thesis comes from an interpretation practice of my own. On September 13 th 2015, the author served as an interpreter in the interview between Chinese-American artist David Diao and Huo Yujia(Shelly Huo), the journalist invited by L’OFFICIEL HOMMES. By analyzing examples from the live recording, the thesis explores the importance of background knowledge in certain art field – painting. The thesis reviews relevant theories of background knowledge. Choosing some typical examples from the recording, the thesis discusses how to efficiently improve interpretation quality in short-term and long-term preparation and also makes analysis of how lack of background knowledge affects interpretations. In the end, the thesis points out that short-term and long-term preparations can actually enhance the interpretation quality. Meanwhile, to improve the quality of artistic interpreting, especially interpreting concerning painting, it is of great importance to gain sense perception through seeing and studying relevant artworks.