On The Role Of Chinese Diplomatic Interpretation In National Image Shaping From The Perspective Of The Interpretive Theory

The Foreign Minister of the P.R.China is scheduled every year in early March to hold a press conference,taking questions regarding China's external policies and relations.Interpretation has all along served as a bridge in the conference,and interpreters' performance has a direct bearing on the explicit demonstration of China's position,attitude,and image.Given the significance of the event,it is necessary to adopt appropriate strategies for quality interpretation.The Interpretive theory holds that interpretation,instead of being a conversion of language symbols,is a communicative activity,the essence of which is the understanding and delivery of meaning.Since the Chinese language differs from the English language in structure and diplomatic interpretation is of political nature,the key to diplomatic press conference interpretation lies in the delivery of meaning and the keeping of sense of proportion.This is in line with the Interpretive theory's view of “de-verbalization.” As a result,the theory is of important guidance for strategy choice for the press conference interpretation.Based on the Interpretive theory and upon the introduction to diplomatic channel and the targeted approach to national image shaping,this paper analyzes foreign minister press conference interpretation from 2014 to 2019.This effort is done for the purpose of demonstrating the role of diplomatic interpretation in national image shaping and bringing out four coping strategies: meaning prioritizing,structure rearrangement,logic coherence processing,and sense of proportion keeping.In short,this paper hopes to provide suggestion on similar interpretation practices in the future.