A Survey Report On Translation Of Subway Prublic Signs

As China expects to build international cities and a brand-new arena that attracts foreign tourists and students,a sound and sophisticated bilingual signage system is indispensable for non-Chinese.As one of the primary means of transportation,the subway system in China enjoys a largely increased ridership.Hence,bilingual public signage is essential to help navigate passengers within subway,and therefore the Chinese signs and their English renderings need to be succinct,efficient and consistent to reduce unnecessary problems such as overcrowding.To do this,the General Administration of Quality Supervision,Inspection and Quarantine as well as Standardization Administration issued Guidelines for the Use of English in Public Services Areas—Part 2 Transportation(hereinafter referred to as "the Guidelines")on December 1,2017.The author conducts two field surveys in Chengdu and Nanning to look into the implement of "the Guidelines" and the current sign translation problems.To better illustrate this issue,the author hereby complements it with a detailed survey description and 47 typical cases,85 online questionnaires and 3 separate interviews.Various data and charts are used to demonstrate this issue,which contributes the author's share to tackle this problem.