Ziyun Xu holds a Bachelor's Degree in English Language and Literature from the Shanghai International Studies University and a Master's Degree in Conference Interpreting from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He is also certified as a court interpreter for New York's United Court System. Ziyun is currently serving as the Chief Interpreter and Director of the Translation and Research Department for the US-China Exchange Council, based near San Francisco, California. In this role he interprets for Chinese and American political leaders, business people and academics; supervises and trains a roster of interpreters and translators; and helps to develop executive training programs in collaboration with Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. He also works as a business consultant, facilitating complex negotiations for Chinese start-up companies interested in acquiring clean technologies from US businesses.
The career paths of graduates in Chinese Interpreting Studies: A scientometric exploration
Supervisor: Éric Archimbauldt
Research summary
There is no denying the explosive growth of the interpreting industry in China. Whereas interpreting in the West has developed into a mature academic discipline, formalized training in the profession is still a relatively new phenomenon in China. In the West several researchers have employed citation analysis, a much-used and important technique in scientometrics, to map out trends and identify major influences in Interpreting Studies, but such methods have not been extensively applied in China. Scientometrics provides a relatively objective means of measuring the productivity of published authors and the research performance of institutions and regions; it can also be used to gauge the level of interdisciplinary collaboration within a field. Multiple scientometric studies across various academic disciplines have been carried out in China, and the science has been increasingly integrated into subdisciplines in Interpreting/ Translation Studies in the past decade. The current research project is intended to contribute to Chinese Interpreting Studies by providing, for perhaps the first time, a thorough scientometric analysis of conference interpreting literature produced in China, including journal articles, conference proceedings, monographs, theses and dissertations. Its aim is to provide scholars with a comprehensive and objective overview of trends in the discipline, its most influential academics, its principal production centers and its commonly discussed topics.
