What is Real Transcreation? A Case Study of Transcreation in Corporate Communication Writing

Abstract

Transcreation, a term merging "translation" and "creation", has become a buzzword in the language service industry as well as in translation studies. However, pertinent questions with regard to it are: "what is transcreation?" and "what kind of text is a transcreated text?" This paper addresses the first issue by a systemic functional linguistics based survey of definitions from professional translators, language service providers and scholars in translation studies respectively for a real definition of transcreation with descriptions of its metafunctions. Further, by textual analysis in the case study of the Chinese and its English translation corporate profiles of Huawei, a multinational information and communication technology company of China, the paper studies the application of transcreation in corporate communication writing by examining its metafunctions. It is concluded that transcreation requires multi-party's interplay and produces new constructs in the transcreated texts, which poses both challenges and opportunities to translators. The research findngs prove transcreation's effectiveness and flexibility in corporate communication and showcase the challenges and opportunities it brings to the translation profession by linking its real definition with its practical use.