What is cultural management about? - Overcoming Being Lost in Translation

Most of you may know the movie Lost in Translation; directed by Sofia Coppola and with Scarlett Johansson, in the part of a young married woman with a rather busy husband. Staying in Tokyo in an anonymous hotel, she feels lonely and excluded from her surroundings. She cannot find anything that is familiar to her. That is why she is ‘lost in translation’. I would like to tie in on this idea and give my speech the title: Overcoming Being Lost in Translation.

Transmitting culture has been defined as a soft power strategy. It is an important component of China's strategy of building friendly relations between all nations. Part of this strategy is the establishing of CIs to promote Chinese language and culture. These institutes have been compared with institutions such as the German Goethe Institute, the British Council, or the Instituto Cervantes. All these institutes pursue the same basic idea: to foster and enhance the knowledge of their language and culture. From my point of view, the Chinese CIs have a specific task as most of them are organized around intercultural cooperation. What does this mean and how can we serve as an intercultural transmitter?

Our experience has led us to develop a concept combining Chinese language teaching and the arranging of cultural events. Of course, each CI has different prevailing conditions, so the chosen concepts have to refer to the given situation. But as the CIs differ from normal private language schools, they act as bridges between two or more cultures. This requires thorough comprehension and sound knowledge of both cultures and also understanding of the particular characteristics of each culture.

Keeping these premises in mind, the CIs have to take into account the needs of the local communities and analyze their interest in China. What do they know about China and Chinese culture? How can we motivate them to attend our cultural events and apply for our language courses? Based on our experience, we use a step-by-step concept and tie in on their existing knowledge; point out the similarities and differences between the two cultures. Sometimes we even tackle existing stereotyped biases and prejudices.

Assuming that most of the general public only has limited knowledge of Chinese calligraphy we start by making them curious about Chinese characters. For example we ask them: "Why do the Chinese people still use those traditional characters for writing? Isn’t it more practical to use the Latin alphabet?" Showing the lyric images in some characters (take xiuxi as an example – it means "to rest" and the character shows a person leaning against a tree), we give the participants of our lessons and events a feeling of the magical beauty of Chinese characters. The next step could be explaining Hanyu Pinyin or using the computer for writing Chinese.

Another example I would like to give, is the focus on the similarities and differences. Last year we arranged a theme exhibition on Peking opera. Most of the general public doesn’t have any serious knowledge of this kind of music. That is why we first talked about Western opera, for example Italian opera, and then asked a Chinese singer to give a performance—first singing some arias in Chinese, then in German. It was a great, cheerful surprise.

The third example I would like to give, is to tie in on perhaps existing stereotypes and try to break down those prejudices. When some of us recently visited the Frankfurt Book Fair, we were confronted with ideological and political discussions. In my opinion the CIs do not only promote Chinese language and culture, they also build bridges between cultures and nations. It is that sort of understanding that doesn’t stop when confronted with political paradigms but goes further, starts a discussion about differences and similarities, talks even about Western and Chinese cooking and eating habits (I will not refer to the question "Do Chinese really eat dogs?") We talk about likes and dislikes, about different and similar habits and their social or historical contexts. Do you want to know more ore less about China? That is the question.

I would like to quote Claudio Magris, the Italian writer from Triest, who was recently awarded the prize for peace by the German book traders. When asked about his view on China, he stated that we should "discover the unknown on the other side to understand it one day as our own." In this way the Confucius Institutes are acting as cultural translators. Speaking different languages and living in different cultures we should not get ‘lost in translation’. It is our task to promote Chinese language and culture by intercultural relations and intercultural communication; to overcome being ‘lost in translation’ by mutual perception and with enthusiasm for this exciting goal.

Dagmar Yu-Dembski, October 2009, interview mit Gerrit Bartels, in: "Die Menschlichkeit Mitteleuropas", Der Tagesspiegel, 17.10.2009.