About Us

Welcome to the Division of Intercultural Communication!

Over the last nine years, school of Humanities and Social Science has launched the MA in Translation and Interpreting Studies (2015), MA in Simultaneous Interpreting 
(2015), BA in Translation (2016), BA in English Studies (2020), and MPhil-PhD in Translation Studies (2022). We have been remarkably successful at preparing undergraduates and postgraduates alike for the professional world—and now we are preparing MPhil-PhD students in Translation Studies for the academic world as well!

Since the creation of the Division in 2023, bringing English and Translation together under the same roof for the first time, people inside the Division and out have been asking: “what do the two have in common?” Sure, Chinese translators and interpreters mediate between English and Chinese; but shouldn’t Translation’s partner programme be not English but English-and-Chinese?

For our undergraduate students, 80% enter prestigious MA programmes at home and (especially) abroad. Of the other 20%, some have become English teachers; many, however, have moved into jobs in industry requiring a high comfort level not only with English and Chinese but with moving fluently and effectively between them. The need for such people in China’s global economy is overwhelmingly evident—and our programmes have been producing such people in significant numbers.

As we have begun to reflect on what English and Translation have in common, we have repeatedly come to the realization that the common core between the two programs is English-Chinese intercultural communication—precisely what the global economy desperately needs. Translators and interpreters are obviously experts in intercultural communication; but so are bilingual marketers, bilingual secretaries, and the like. We have already been training our graduates for such jobs for years; recently exploring the commonalities between English and Translation has now been pushing us to move ever more strongly into that interlingual and intercultural realm.

What our undergraduate students of English are studying, too, is not just “the English language” and “Anglophone literature,” but cross-cultural legal communication, cross-cultural corporate communication, cross-cultural media communication. They are not only learning to communicate across linguistic and cultural boundaries, but also experiencing with enthusiasm and self-appreciation what it means to be Chinese people learning to communicate between English and Chinese cultures.

Keep an eye on this space. We are preparing for professional development and dedicated to nurturing exceptional talents for society. You won’t want to miss out on the next stage of our pursuit of excellence!