The Social Impact Of Televised Sign Language Interpreting On Deaf Identity Construction

Sign language(SL)interpreting on Chinese television,though with unsatisfactory quality,was perceived as a symbol of government care and social progress in the eyes of the Deaf community and Chinese media.Interpreting thus is perceived not only as a communicative tool but more a social phenomenon,which can be constructed by different stakeholders and bring about certain social impact.Following this school of thought,this research investigates Chinese hearing people’s perceptions of SL interpreting on television and tries to explore the social impact of interpreting as a social practice.The research also adopts theories concerning identity and interplay between interpreting and identity construction,and studies how identity of a linguistic minority can be constructed by the society’s perceptions of their differences and how interpreting may influence those perceptions of difference.This study explores the social value of sign language interpreting in Deaf identity construction by investigating hearing perceptions of sign language interpreting on Chinese television and its impact the participants perceived on their understanding of sign language and deafness.Adopting a quantitative method,the study surveys the Post-80 s and-90 s generations with higher education in eight of China’s most developed urban areas,and collected 1188 valid questionnaires.The analysis draws from translation studies,sociology and Deaf studies,and results prove that the interpreting service does exert positive influences on hearing audience’ understanding of SL and Deaf people and thus Deaf identity.Nevertheless,the quality of SL interpreting on television is shown to be significantly overrated by the participants,echoing with previous research that Deaf people’s voice against the practice has long been ignored.The findings of the study provide new insights on the social functions of interpreting and add new dimension to the value of interpreting in identity construction by involving new stakeholders in the discussion.