Department of Translation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

News and Events

Bridging Art and Translation: A Cultural Immersion at the Hong Kong Museum of Art

On Friday, 7th March 2025, postgraduate students from the Department of Translation at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) went on an enlightening field trip to the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA). The students, drawn from two specialized courses—Arts Translation and Translation of Subtitles—found particular relevance in this excursion that aligned with their academic focus.

Impressionist Masterpieces: Translating Art Across Cultures

The first stop was the special exhibition “The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Cézanne and Renoir Looking at the World — Masterpieces from the Musée de l'Orangerie and the Musée d'Orsay.” For translation students, this collection presented more than just artistic beauty; it offered a tangible example of how visual art transcends linguistic boundaries while simultaneously requiring cultural context to be fully appreciated.

The works of Cézanne and Renoir, with their distinctive approaches to light, color, and composition, demonstrated how meaning can be conveyed through non-verbal media—a reminder that effective translation often requires understanding beyond the mere words on a page. The students noted how the accompanying exhibition texts and multimedia elements presented unique challenges in conveying artistic terminology and cultural nuances across languages.

The exhibition demonstrated how interpretation extends beyond the canvas itself, offering students a chance to consider how cultural context shapes understanding of artistic works, regardless of the medium through which they’re presented.

East-West Exchange: A Tale in Two Languages

The second exhibition, “Shopping in Canton: China Trade Art in the 18th and 19th Centuries (Phase IV),” provided insights into early commercial and cultural exchanges between China and the West. With some supporting multimedia elements providing historical context, students could appreciate these trade artifacts and artwork in their historical setting.

For this portion, students were divided into two separate groups, each accompanied by a dedicated docent—one group receiving the tour in English and the other in Mandarin Chinese. This division created a valuable opportunity for comparative analysis between the specialized translation tracks.

The Subtitles Translation students paid particular attention to how multimedia elements were localized differently between the language versions, noticing variations in timing, emphasis, and cultural references. The Arts Translation students, meanwhile, analyzed how terminology related to trade artifacts and artistic techniques were handled across linguistic boundaries.

Beyond Theory: Translation in Practice

For these postgraduate students, the field trip transcended the traditional classroom experience. It served as a living laboratory for examining how cultural artifacts, historical narratives, and artistic concepts navigate the complex journey of translation.

The separate English and Mandarin tours highlighted how the same visual content can be framed differently depending on linguistic and cultural assumptions. Students noted specific instances where certain concepts received more elaborate explanations in one language compared to the other, reflecting the docents’ understanding of what their respective audiences might need more context to appreciate.

Specialized Learning for Specialized Fields

This field trip exemplified the department’s commitment to providing targeted, real-world learning experiences aligned with specific career pathways. For Arts Translation students, the museum visit offered direct engagement with the very content they might be tasked with translating—exhibition catalogs, artwork descriptions, and cultural context notes.

For the Subtitles Translation students, the multimedia presentations demonstrated practical challenges they’ll face in their careers: space limitations, timing constraints, and the need to distill complex cultural concepts into concise subtitles that enhance rather than distract from visual content.

Perhaps most valuable was the observation of how traditional artistic expression and contemporary multimedia presentations could work in harmony—each exhibition successfully bridged centuries-old art forms with modern interpretive technologies. This intersection mirrors the evolving field of translation itself, which increasingly blends traditional linguistic expertise with digital literacy and multimedia competence.

Preparing Tomorrow’s Translation Professionals

As industries become increasingly global and cross-cultural communication grows more essential, experiences like this field trip become invaluable for developing translators. Understanding the cultural context behind words—whether they describe brushstrokes on canvas or historical trading practices—is what transforms a literal translator into a cultural mediator.

The Department of Translation at CUHK continues to emphasize these immersive learning experiences as a cornerstone of their curriculum, preparing students not just to translate words, but to bridge worlds.

A Note of Gratitude

We extend our heartfelt thanks to the Hong Kong Museum of Art for their exceptional generosity and support of our educational mission. Their special arrangement to waive the entry fee to “The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Cézanne and Renoir Looking at the World” exhibition was greatly appreciated, making this valuable learning experience accessible to all our students. We are particularly grateful for the thoughtful provision of two dedicated docents who delivered detailed narrations, offering insights that perfectly complemented their translation studies. The meticulously curated exhibitions provided our students with rich material to consider the nuances of cultural and linguistic mediation. Our appreciation also extends to the faculty members from CUHK who made this field trip possible: Prof. Sophie Wei, Dr. Chester Cheng, and Mr. Jasper Chong, whose dedication to creating meaningful learning experiences outside the classroom continues to enrich our translation program. Their efforts in organizing this visit have created lasting educational value for our students that will inform their professional practice for years to come.