The BFSU Research Center for Country-specific Translation Competence (RCTC) is a virtual scientific research institution, which is based on the Graduate School of Translation and Interpreting. 

The center integrates academic research, think-tank services, talent training and social services, carrying out cutting-edge research in translation discipline, interdisciplinary research and special research by using its edge in translation, quality professional resources and multilanguage teaching.

It has made significant achievements and has been committed to BFSU’s transformation into a world-class university with first-class disciplines. The center plays its role in the construction of a theoretical system of translation with Chinese characteristics, building the Beijing International Exchange Center and improving national translation capabilities and the soft power of Chinese culture. It provides intellectual support to national key strategies, such as Chinese culture going global, the Belt and Road Initiative, and a community of a shared future for mankind.

The center has the main tasks as follows:

Academic research

The center carries out research and releases annual bilingual rankings on the global national translation capacity index, the global universities translation discipline and translation capability index, and the industrial translation capacity index; it establishes a national translation capacity database/resource base, building a relatively complete knowledge system of translation capabilities.

The center conducts research on the quantity of translated books, categories, communication and the effects of acceptance. It engages in the construction and study of a language database on simultaneous interpretation, which is expected to establish the world’s largest language database for the simultaneous interpretation of English to Chinese and Chinese to English, and be a resource base for simultaneous interpretation teaching.

It launched China’s first English international journal for interpreting studies: Interpreting and Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal, which aims to be an internationally influential journal recorded by the Scopus database during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), and has been indexed by the ESCI, SSCI and A&HCI.

Additionally, the center organizes translations into a significant series of books across different fields; annually holds high-level international academic seminars and publishes high-level academic papers, books and reports.

Think-tank construction 

The center is built as a think-tank, which provides annual consulting reports to national departments including the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, the MOE and the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

It offers suggestions to the strategical plan of translation talent training in coming years according to the translation capability index, the quantity of translated books, categories and communication effect of translated products. It also provides suggestions on national translation and communication methods, which will be gradually developed into a think-tank institution with great influence both at home and abroad.

Talent training

The research achievements of the center can be directly used to guide and train professional high-end translation talents and academic researchers in the translation discipline. The academy is responsible for organizing the compilation of translation textbooks that embody the characteristics of the times, serve the development of national translation education standards, and help in the implementation of the training of national translation talents. It provides a Chinese method and style for global translation education theory and practice.

At the same time, the center facilitates the construction of postdoctoral programs and doctoral training in translation.

Cooperation

The center will cooperate with BFSU’s research institutions and think-tanks for interdisciplinary research, and will hold international high-end forums and academic conferences. It will work with other domestic universities, publicity departments and translation institutions to promote government-industry-university-research cooperation.

It will join hands with overseas universities, academic institutions and international organizations to encourage more exchanges and dialogues between China and the international academic circle.

Social services 

The center keeps close contact with national departments, the Winter Olympic Games Organizing Committee, UN agencies and other international organizations in order to establish a long-term cooperation mechanism.

It coordinates translation resources inside and outside of BFSU, providing important translations of Party and government documents, interpretations for important meetings and language services for the emergency response of major events. It actively leads and participates in the formulation of national translation and language service standards.

The center will further explore the innovation of mechanisms and the system, pushing forward a collaborative development of industry, education and research in the field of translation. It will build a translation brand for BFSU of serving the key goals and strategies of the school, Beijing and the country.

Tel: +86-10-88816386

E-mail: RECTIC@bfsu.edu.cn