Public Perceptions of Diplomatic Interpreters in China: A Corpus-driven Approach

This study explores the public perceptions of diplomatic interpreters and aims to unravel the criteria held by the public and the interpreting profession in evaluating the interpreters. The dissemination of diplomatic interpreting events through new media has led to increased visibility of interpreters and extended the public’s attention from the interpreting product to the interpreters. To gain an insight into public perceptions of interpreters at diplomatic events, this study analyzes the comments from Weibo (a Chinese microblogging platform) on the interpreters in the China-US High-Level Strategic Dialogue (HLSD) in March 2021, the first high-level meeting between the two countries since the start of the Biden administration. ROST CM6 and NVivo 11 are used to visualize the themes of public perceptions on the interpreters. By analyzing 4,278 Weibo entries, it is found that new media platforms not only expand the audience of interpreting events but also facilitate the formation of a new way of interaction. As the indirect user of interpreting services, the public does not apply the traditional functional views (e.g., accuracy and completeness) in evaluating the quality of interpreting but examines it from the perspective of their native language, relying on the formal criteria of interpreting (e.g., fluency and pronunciation). The public is more concerned about the image of the interpreters than the quality of interpreting. The image of the interpreters is viewed by the public as a representation of professionalism.