APSIRI Research: Translating Place — Eco-Translatology and the Image of Kulangsu
How a place is described to the world shapes how the world comes to understand it. A new research outcome from the Asia-Pacific Social Innovation Research Institute (APSIRI), authored by Yucheng Li and Zhongqiang Ma, examines the English translation of tourist-attraction introductions through the lens of eco-translatology, using the historic island of Kulangsu as a detailed case.
The study begins from the recognition that translating a cultural site is never a simple matter of swapping words from one language into another. A tourist introduction carries history, atmosphere, aesthetic sensibility, and cultural meaning. When it is translated, the challenge is to convey not only information but feeling and significance — to allow a visitor from another culture to grasp something of what makes a place distinctive. A literal rendering may be accurate at the level of words yet fail entirely at the level of meaning.
Eco-translatology, the framework the authors adopt, offers a way of thinking about this challenge. It treats translation as a process of adaptation within a complex environment of linguistic, cultural, and communicative factors. The translator, in this view, is not a neutral conduit but an agent making continual choices — selecting, adapting, and balancing — in order to achieve the best fit between source and target within a given context. The “ecology” of translation includes the expectations of the audience, the cultural distance to be bridged, and the communicative purpose the text must serve.
Through the case of Kulangsu, the research illustrates how these adaptive choices play out in practice. The island’s layered history and distinctive character pose real difficulties for translation: names, allusions, and culturally specific references that have no ready equivalent in English. The study examines how translators navigate these difficulties, and what their choices reveal about the broader task of presenting cultural heritage to international audiences.
The implications extend well beyond a single site. As regions across the Asia-Pacific seek to share their heritage with the world, the quality of translation becomes a matter of real consequence — shaping not only tourism but cross-cultural understanding itself. Poor translation can flatten and distort; thoughtful translation can open a window onto another culture. The research argues for treating the translation of cultural sites as a skilled, context-sensitive practice deserving of serious attention, rather than a routine technical task.
The study also contributes to translation scholarship by demonstrating the value of eco-translatology as an analytical tool. By focusing on adaptation and context rather than literal equivalence, the framework offers a richer account of what good translation involves — and of the judgement that translators must exercise.
This research connects to APSIRI’s interest in knowledge dissemination and cross-cultural exchange across the Asia-Pacific. By examining how meaning travels between languages and cultures, the Institute seeks to support the kind of communication on which genuine regional and international understanding depends.