Ethnic Minorities Language Translation as a Path of Communication Integration of Nation-Building: A Case Study of the New Coronavirus Outbreak in China

Abstract: 

Since the foundation of the people's Republic of China, after 70 years of development, China has established a large-scale and nationwide communication network in terms of width and depth. In history, the country has shown features and education films among villages via mobile projection teams. While meeting the entertainment needs of villagers, projection teams also conveyed policies, regulations, science, culture, education, health, and much other information. Besides, for ethnic minorities audiences who live in the frontier and speaks different languages rather than mandarin, the country has also sprung up the film and television translation projects for ethnic groups throughout 11 provinces and autonomous regions of the country, so that minorities audience can understand film and television works better. Ethnic minority translating becomes a path to actualize nation-building (Wimmers, 2018) in terms of communication integration. Minorities who speak different languages of a frontier area can get involved in the country’s modern governance and development. Therefore, each ethnic minority language translation center of the ethnic group areas has become a vital link between the central government and the local public concerning entertainment, education, and communication. The purpose of this research attempts to make an objective historical record of the disease outbreak and explains how the nation completes the communication integration of nation-building through ethnic language translation, and how the local audience and government response to the translated regulation and contingency plans. This research chooses the 2020 public health outbreak of new coronavirus in China as a case, with a focus on translation center in southwest frontier of China, and relating translated policies, regulations and contingency plans of the disease outbreak. Regarding field investigation and interviews with relevant personnel as the main research methods, this paper tries to understand how the public health policy is translated through the ethnic groups’ translation center, to effectively convey the information to the ethnic minorities in the frontier areas of Southwest China, to achieve the disease prevention.