The College Hosts International Scholars to Explore “Vocabulary in the World Knowledge System”
On November 1st and 2nd, the Center for Translation and Cross-cultural Studies of the College of Foreign Languages and Literatures convened an international academic conference entitled, “The Vocabulary in the Worldwide Knowledge System: Explanation, Mediation, and Interpretation.” The opening ceremony featured distinguished scholars from France, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. In their opening remarks, representatives from the participating universities articulated their long-standing academic collaborations and unanimously underscored the indispensable value of translation as a conduit for intercultural communication.
NCCU College of Foreign Languages and Literature: Fostering a Platform for Diverse Dialogue and Global Academic Integration
The conference was inaugurated with a welcome address by the organizer, Dean Chao Ching-chi of the College of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Dean Chao articulated the conference’s objective to provide a sophisticated platform for scholarly dialogue and intellectual exchange among researchers from diverse linguistic and cultural provenances. The academic program was structured into eight sessions, comprising twenty-six paper presentations that addressed topics in cross-cultural studies, translation, interpreting, and classical texts.
Subsequently, Director Hsiung Tao-tian of the Center for Translation and Cross-cultural Studies formally welcomed the distinguished guests, with a particular acknowledgement of those who had traveled from South Korea, Japan, and “the distant nation of France.” He made a lighthearted reference to his affiliation with the Department of Turkish Language and Culture, expressing his aspiration to include scholars from a wider array of language families in subsequent years. Director Hsiung also extended his sincere gratitude to the former director, Lin You-yi, and the preparatory committee, whose diligent efforts facilitated his seamless assumption of leadership for the conference.
Korea University: Conceptualizing Translation as Diachronic and Intercultural Communication
Song Hyok Key, Director of the Institute for the Study of Korean Classics at Korea University, recalled his visit to National Chengchi University (NCCU) in March of the same year. Upon the invitation of then-Director Lin You-yi, he executed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for academic cooperation on behalf of Korea University. He asserted his conviction that this conference constitutes a foundational step toward fostering substantive future collaborations between the two institutions. He posited, “Translation transcends the mere conversion of one language into another; it is, fundamentally, a mode of communication between disparate cultures.”
Professor Song drew upon South Korea’s historical context as an illustrative case. For an extended period, “Hanmun” (classical Chinese) served as the principal literary medium, resulting in a vast corpus of literature composed in Chinese characters. Consequently, these pre-modern classical texts are largely inaccessible to contemporary Korean readership without the aid of translation. As the concurrent president of the Korean Society for Classical Translation and a committee member of the Korean Classics Research Institute, he is deeply committed to advancing classical translation initiatives. He conceptualizes these efforts as facilitating a diachronic cultural dialogue between historical and modern Korean societies.
Japan’s Kyorin University: Presenting Research on Medical Interpreting and Affirming a Long-Term Partnership
Professor Miyakubi Hiroko of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Kyorin University, Japan, delivered her address entirely in fluent Mandarin Chinese, a testament to the profound and long-standing academic exchanges between the institutions. Professor Miyakubi noted that this was her second visit to NCCU and that the two universities have maintained a collegial partnership for over a decade, with certain affiliations extending back two decades. She observed that a fourth-year Kyorin University student in attendance was a former exchange student at NCCU, rendering her participation in the conference a symbolic “homecoming.”
At the conference, she and her two doctoral candidates, Chang Han-yen and Yen Yi-hsuan, presented their latest research findings concerning “the current status and extant challenges of medical interpreting in Japan.” Although the students were unable to be physically present, their presentations were conducted via online modalities. She conveyed her profound honor and enthusiasm for co-hosting this significant event with esteemed scholars from France and South Korea.
France’s INALCO: Proposing a Collaborative Role as a “Nexus of Mediation” for Eurasian Academia
Liu Chan-yueh, a Taiwanese scholar and the Director of the Taiwan Studies Center at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in France, recounted his participation in a previous conference at the same venue two years prior. He remarked that the conception of the current conference was initiated in March in collaboration with former Director Lin You-yi. He formally announced that INALCO and NCCU had ratified an MOU in 2023 and expressed his anticipation for the continued cultivation of this institutional partnership.
He emphasized that the conference was deliberately curated to expose attendees to the sounds of French, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese, observing that “within the translational process, the source language is often rendered silent.” He posited that the inherent “challenges” arising from such multilingual encounters could paradoxically stimulate more intellectually fecund dialogues. Professor Liu articulated his aspiration for INALCO to function as a “nexus of mediation” in Europe for scholars from Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. This role would, akin to translation itself, bridge a geographical distance of 9,000 kilometers to generate more multifaceted opportunities for scholarly interaction in Paris.
The opening ceremony formally concluded with the presentation of commemorative gifts to the international representatives and a group photograph, after which the scheduled paper presentation sessions commenced.
From Lexicon to Civilization: Mapping the Trajectories of Language in Global Knowledge Networks
This two-day academic event, centered on the “word,” evolved into a comprehensive cross-Eurasian dialogue on epistemology and cultural semantics. Throughout the conference, French scholars initiated discussions on the semantic evolution of “civilization” and “politeness,” elucidating the embedded power dynamics and historical genealogies of specific lexemes. The Korean delegation presented their classical translation engineering project, showcasing the capacity of digitalization to revitalize ancient canonical texts for contemporary scholarship. Researchers from Japan’s Kyorin University conducted an in-depth analysis of medical interpreting to examine the critical impact of contextual variables on communication in life-or-death scenarios. Concurrently, papers from INALCO’s Taiwan studies scholars delineated the polysemous nature of local linguistic expressions, from the interpretation of the phrase “hen hao tai o” (so Taiwanese of you) to the cultural strategies employed in literary translation.
Comprising eight sessions and twenty-six papers, the conference’s thematic scope encompassed classical literature, medical translation, cross-cultural interpretation, and sociolinguistics. Each presentation transitioned the “word” from a static linguistic unit to a dynamic node within a broader knowledge network, thereby illustrating the function of language as a fundamental “mediator” in human epistemology. Through robust Q&A and scholarly debate, attendees reconceptualized “translation” not as a mere technical procedure, but as an integral process in the co-creation of global knowledge systems.
As a foundational element of understanding and cooperation, language is paramount. Through this conference, the College of Foreign Languages and Literatures further consolidated its institutional partnerships with Korea University, Kyorin University, and INALCO, reaffirming its commitment to promoting international dialogue in translation and cross-cultural studies. The event represented more than a mere investigation of vocabulary; it was a global intellectual experiment with “translation” as its conduit and “understanding” as its ultimate aim, thereby charting a new trajectory for future intercultural academic collaborations.
All Texts Translated by Gemini
