Framing Narratives In Translation Of Security Discourse

Individual or institutional speech and communication activities are inextricably linked to national security.In the wake of the global dissemination of New Cosmopolitanism,security discourse,that is,discourse concerning national security,often incorporates the effect of international communication.The narrative framework and translations of China’s security discourse are therefore critical to the development of the international security discourse system.On June 15,2020,a clash between Chinese and Indian soldiers occurred in the Garwan Valley of Ladakh,along the shared border.Further attention has been rapidly devoted to the China-India border situation and the following conditions of China-India relations.Therefore,Chinese official narratives are widely reported by Chinese and Indian media.By following Mona Baker’s analytical framework of translation narrative construction with a focus on the narrative framing process and drawing on the 47 news reports on the Sino-Indian conflict collected from Chinese and Indian mainstream media websites from June 15,2020 to July 20,2021,the paper explores the translation narrative strategies of Chinese and Indian media for the Chinese reported discourse and the underlying reasons from the perspective of narrative acceptance.It has been discovered that Chinese narratives are self-and other-shaped in the translation framing process.Media have realized the correlation and accumulation of personal and public narratives in news reports through temporal and spatial framing,selective appropriation in texts,and have effectively weakened the argument of “China threat” and “bilateral conflict” through omission and reconfiguring patterns of causal emplotment,so as to promote narrative communication.In contrast,Indian media mainly realize temporal and spatial framing and repositioning of the participants through omission,revision,and addition.Based on realistic reasons and under the control of ideology,both narrative adjustment and narrative intervention are involved in the media’s narrative framing process.The narrative competition closely related to acceptance is not a zero-sum game but strives for consensus as much as possible on the premise of correctly expressing China’s position.Discourse,including the discourse system,is not only an integral part of national security,but also matters for national security.Therefore,it is necessary to emphasize the role of cross-cultural translation in the construction of national security.The establishment and improvement of China’s national security discourse system also need to clarify the vital role of translators in it,so as to provide a better dialogue space and narrative strategy for future communication and closer cooperation between China and India.