Dr Ting Guo PhD

Research Overview

My main research interest is the pivotal role of translation in the reproduction and dissemination of knowledge as well as in social and political changes. The areas that I am interested include translation/interpreting history, translation of gender and sexuality, fan translation and popular culture.

My monograph, TG's monographSurviving Violent Conflict: Chinese Interpreters in the Second-Sino Japanese War (1931-45) (2016) investigates how Chinese interpreters were recruited and deployed by the Chinese nationalist government, the Chinese Communist Party and the Japanese forces during the Second-Sino Japanese War. It questions the institutionalized image of interpreter and interpreter training and highlights the multiple positioning of interpreters in reality and their border-crossing strategies.

My AHRC-funded project “Dancing in Her Seven Veils: Revisiting the Salomé Craze in 1930's Shanghai” examines the production and reception of the first Chinese Salomé play and explores how the image of Salomé was transformed into a cosmopolitan cultural product attractive to the middleclass audiences in Shanghai.

The project that I am currently working on "Translating for Changes: Anglophone Queer Cinema and Chinese LGBT+ Movement", also funded by AHRC explores the translation and use of Anglophone (North American, British, Australasian) queer cinema as a means of developing LGBT+ culture and rights in China. Rather than focusing on the media representation of Chinese LGBT+ communities, this project investigates how the unofficial translation and dissemination of Anglophone queer films participate in and shape the development of the LGBT+ rights movement and culture in China. Collaborating with Aibai, a non-profit Chinese organization aiming at promoting equal rights for the LGBT+ community, QAFONE and Jihua Network, two of the most influential Chinese LGBT+ subtitling groups, this project examines the translation and discussion of Anglophone LGBT+ films in China and the screening of these translated films in important Chinese queer film events (e.g. Shanghai Pride film festival, Shanghai Queer Festival, Beijing Queer Film Festival, China Queer Independent Film Tour) as well as social events organized by Chinese LGBT+ organizations. It investigates the key players involved in the translation and dissemination of Anglophone queer films and broaden existing research on transnational connections between Anglophone and Chinese LGBT+ movements.