Translators Association of China
The Translators Association of China (TAC) was founded in 1982. As the voice for the translation and interpreting community in China at the national level, TAC represents the interests of over 920,000 professional translators and interpreters nationwide through its 1,637 institutional members, 8,474 individual members, and 18 committees covering areas including science and technology, literature and arts, social sciences, legal affairs, ethnic languages, translation studies and teaching, interpreting and more.
TAC, together with its 48 member associations at the local level and 18 committees, organises a wide range of activities each year to facilitate communication and exchange within the T&I community. Some of the major events and projects include:
• TAC's annual conference, the most important event which draws professionals and pools resources from almost every segment of the T&I community in China and beyond.
• The Han Suyin International Translation Contest, the largest, most prestigious and longest-established translation competition in China, with more than 50,000 participants in 2022 alone.
• The National Training Programme for Teachers of Translation and Interpreting, the largest and longest-running TOT programme of its kind, has trained more than 8,000 professionals from over 700 institutions, mostly universities and colleges with T&I programmes.
• The All China Interpreting Contest, held annually since 2010, with on average more than 5,000 participants and a record of over 10,000 participants in 2021.
• Titles and awards to outstanding professionals, including the Lifetime Achievement Award granted to 49 widely-revered expert translators and interpreters, the Senior Translators Award bestowed upon more than 3,000 veterans of T&I profession, and the Outstanding Foreign Translation Expert Award presented to 13 foreign translators to date.
• Industry reports and standards, including the release of China Language Service Industry Development Report and Global Language Service Industry Development Report, and the publication of 28 national standards, association standards and industry specifications for the language industry.
• TAC's bimonthly journal, Chinese Translators Journal, ranks among the most influential language journals in the country for its contribution to translation and interpreting studies and practice in China.
TAC joined the International Federation of Translators (FIT) in 1987, and many of its representatives have since served as council members including one who served as vice president of FIT. In 2008, TAC co-hosted the 18th FIT World Congress with FIT in Shanghai, which set a record in FIT history in terms of the number of participants (1,456), their geographical representation (74 countries and regions), the presentations submitted (1,510) and academic sessions offered (91).
TAC has also been active in advancing the T&I profession in the Asia-Pacific region. In 1995, it hosted the first Asian Translators Forum, which has since been staged ten times, bringing together practitioners from across the region. Renamed the Asia-Pacific Translation and Interpreting Forum (APTIF) in 2015 by a FIT Council resolution welcoming the Oceania to the forum, and with the establishment of the APTIF Joint Committee in 2016, the event has become an even more important platform for regional communication and exchange. In 2023, the proposal to establish the fourth FIT regional centre, FIT Asia, was approved at the 7th council meeting of FIT in Barcelona, Spain.
