Translation in global city Singapore: A holistic embrace in a multilingual milieu?

Publication Type

Book Chapter

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

6-2021

Abstract

As a port city, Singapore was a translation hub during the colonial era. Today, the significance and centrality of translation is to enable Singapore’s polyglot society to understand better the myriad of cultures that thrive in the city-state. A competent environment of translation can help to allay any concerns of linguistic authoritarianism of English (the dominant language) and Mandarin (the mother tongue of the largest racial community). Singapore’s experience demonstrates that translation is also of historical, social, economic and political importance. This chapter argues that Singapore’s translation regime has a nation-building role: the need for the state to communicate effectively with the different linguistic communities and among the communities themselves. The abiding concern is often about the competency and quality of translation. The challenge for Singapore is to embrace translation holistically, going beyond the functionality of merely translating texts from one language (often English) to another. Translation is critical to the formation of a truly Singaporean multilingual identity, one that is at ease with itself despite the diversity and which sustains her multiracialism.

Keywords

Languages, multicultural context, language translation, Singapore

Discipline

Administrative Law | Asian Studies | East Asian Languages and Societies

Research Areas

Public Interest Law, Community and Social Justice

Publication

The Routledge handbook of translation and the city

Editor

Lee Tong-King

First Page

159

Last Page

175

ISBN

9780429436468

Identifier

10.4324/9780429436468-13

Publisher

Routledge

City or Country

London

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429436468-13

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