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Staff Profile

Dr Ya-Yun Chen

Senior Lecturer in Chinese Interpreting and Translating

  • Email: ya-yun.chen@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 3548
  • Address: Room 6.6, Old Library Building
    School of Modern Languages
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

Background

Since obtaining my MA in translation and interpreting from Monterey Institute of International Studies, USA, I have worked as a freelance translator and interpreter. My subject areas of expertise in interpreting include environmental issues, science, energy, accounting, performance arts, education and psychology. I have translated more than 55 English books into Chinese. Most of them are in the areas of environmental literature, popular science, and children’s literature. I have 30 years of experience in English-Chinese subtitle translation and 20 years of experience in game localisation and website translation.


I came to Newcastle University for my doctoral study in 2004 and have since been working at the University as a lecturer and researcher.


Qualifications

2009 PhD., Translating & Interpreting, Newcastle University

1998 MA, Translation & Interpretation, Monterey Institute of International Studies, US

1989 BSc, Soil and Water Conservation with a Minor Subject in Foreign Languages & Literature, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan


Roles and Responsibilities

2018-present MA Chinese T&I Recruitment team


Previous Positions

2023 (Feb. - July) Acting Director of Postgraduate Research, School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University

2018-2022 Degree Programme Director of MA Chinese Translating and Interpreting, School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University

2000-2004, Part-time Lecturer, Interpreting courses, Dept. of Applied English, National Taipei University of Technology

1999-2004, Part-time Lecturer, Translation courses, Continuing Education Center, Chinese Culture University


Honours and Awards

2010: The Sixth WenJin Book Award by National Library of China (中国国家图书馆第六届文津图书奖) with the Chinese Translation of the book 'DNA: The Secret of Life' (DNA:生命的秘密), written by J.D. Watson.


Research

Research Interests

Translation/interpreting studies: especially how emotions and paralinguistics influence interpreters themselves and their interpreting behaviour and performance, how translators/interpreters construe meaning, how their beliefs interact with their cultural identities and learning motivation

Audiovisual translation and video game translation: I am particularly interested in transcreation and multimodal interaction within audiovisual context

Reflective and autonomous learning: I am particularly interested in the role of educational psychology and philosophy plays in translator and interpreter education



Current Work

Completing a monograph on interpreter education: from classroom to workplace

Completing a paper on gender and interpreting

Completing a monograph on multimodality and audiovisual translation with a special focus on game translation



Current PhD students

Chen, Yang - Judicial Interpreting Policies in Chinese Courts, 1912-1949

Cong, Cen - Influence of Interpreters’ Emotion on their Performance in Simultaneous Interpreting

Deng, Yixuan - Translating Female Body, Sexuality and Voice in Modern China: the Case of Xiao Hong into English

Feng, Daisy - Fan Subtitling Representation of Lesbianism from English to Chinese in Anglophone Audiovisual Products

Guo, Anqi - Assessing the Emotional Impact of Subtitles on the Senior Population: An Audiovisual Translation Perspective

Li, Alex - Subtitling Dialect Humour: Strategies, Stereotypes, and Reception

Liao, Chongjun - Exploring Textual Factors Influencing Source Speech Difficulty: A Study on English-Chinese Simultaneous Interpreting Tests

Lin, Alice - A Critical Discourse Analysis of Gender Expressions and the Intersectionality with Class in the Translation of Hong Lou Meng

Robertson, Dariush - Investigating the Chinese – English Translation of Culture Specific Items in the Localisation of a Wuxia Role Playing Video Game

Wei, Feifei - The Dynamics between Verbal and Nonverbal Semiotics in Museum Interpreting: A Multimodal Approach

Wu, Jingyi - A Corpus-based Study of Collocations in Chinese-to-English Consecutive Interpreting

Yang, Songling - The Impact of Anxiety on Student Interpreters’ Self-repair in English to Chinese Simultaneous Interpreting

Yu, Phoebe - Emotional Regulation Strategies in Simultaneous Interpreting



Past PhD students completed

2022 - Cao, X., 'Translating Sexually Explicit Language in Popular Fiction from English into Chinese: Exploring Patterns and Strategies'

2017 - He, Z., 'Multiple Causality of Differences in Taboo Translation of Blockbuster Films by Chinese Fansubbers and Professionals'

2017 - Lin, Y. H., 'How suspense in detective fiction is affected when translated : a case study based on textual analysis of three Chinese translations of The Hound of the Baskervilles'

2017 - Wang, L., 'West Wind: Being “Modern” and “Chinese” through Translation'

2016 - Wang. T.W., 'Discourse markers in English-Chinese Simultaneous Interpreting'

2015 - Nunes Vieira, L., 'Cognitive Effort in Post-Editing of Machine Translation: Evidence from Eye movements, subjective ratings, and Think-Aloud Protocols'



Funding

2023 Research Capital Investment Fund (RCIF) part of the UoA 26 submission for RCIF for the purchase of state-of-the-art research equipment

2022 QR Enhancing Research Culture Fund (QR-ERCF), People Fund, HaSS, 'Investigating societal and emotional challenges facing young female Chinese interpreters in a patriarchal Chinese society'

2021 Covid Recovery Fund, SML, HaSS, 'Investigating societal and emotional challenges facing novice Chinese interpreters'

2021 Covid Support Fund, HaSS , 'Investigating Transcreativity through a Multimodal Analysis of the Translation of in-Game Texts'

2018 HaSS Teaching Development Fund, 'Creating an Interactive On-line Mini Game to Enhance Students' Learning Experience with Game Translation and Employability Prospect'.

2018, ULTSEC Innovation fund, 'Creating an Interactive On-line Mini Game to Enhance Students' Learning Experience with Game Translation and Employability Prospect'.

2015, International Conference Scheme fund, for supporting TTTW-2 conference.

2014, Profile Raising Fund (SML), the Newcastle Interpreting Forum project

2012, Faculty Research Fund, 'Redefining Fidelity in Chinese-English Interpreting'

2011, Faculty REF funding, 'Chinese trainee interpreters' identity conflicts and learning motivation'

2011, UTLC "Just One Thing" project on interpreting assessment and feedback

2009, UTLC Innovation Fund for developing a virtual-learning platform

2008, CCKF PhD dissertation Fellowship for the completion of my PhD.

2004-2007, Newcastle University International Postgraduate Scholarship

Teaching

Postgraduate Teaching

CHN8024 Consecutive Interpreting II
CHN7003 Translating I (module leader)
SML7000 Information Technology for T&I (module leader)
CHN8035 Chinese-English Subtitle and Video Game Translation (module leader)
MA dissertation/project supervision

PhD supervision 

 

Publications