Lin Wusun, former president of China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration (China International Publishing Group, CIPG), advisor to the Translators Association of China (TAC), and winner of Lifetime Achievement Award in Translation, is a leading translator and scholar in taking Chinese culture to the world. Born in Tianjin in 1928, he pursued his education in Tianjin, Shanghai and Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. In 1946, he went to the United States for further study. Four years later, he came back to China to make his personal contribution to the motherland. In the early 1950s, he visited the Democratic People's Republic of Korea twice as a translator for visiting delegations. He served as the executive vice-president of the TAC, president of the National Review Board for Senior Translators, member of International Federation of Translators (IFT), and chief-editor of the Chinese Translators Journal. He translated, edited and finalized key official documents for the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council. His major translations include Sunzi: The Art of War, Sun Bin: The Art of War, Confucius Says: The Analects, 1937 Nanjing Massacre, Precious Historical Treasures of the Potala, The Silk Road in Cartoons, Riverside Talks: A Friendly Dialogue Between an Atheist and a Christian, and Shanghai Pudong Miracle. He co-edited and co-finalized, among others, Mao Zedong on Diplomacy, the International Situation and Security Strategy, and International Strategy and Revolution in Military Affairs. In 2012, he received an Award for a Special Contribution to Translation by the TAC.

On Aug. 4, 2017, in an interview with China.org.cn and Beijing Chinese-Foreign Translation & Information Service Co., Ltd. (CTIS) at his home, Mr. Lin Wusun, now 89, talked about his career of translation and international communication.

Lin grew up in the years of the war against Japanese aggression, and saw with his own eyes the suffering of his homeland from foreign invasion. At the age of 18, he went to the United States to advance his education, determined to do something for China and to change the country for the better with what he could acquire during his study. He chose philosophy as his major, hoping that he could bring home advanced thinking to help China in moving forward. He also kept himself informed on what was happening around the world by reading the latest publications and listening to the radio.

Lin came back to China shortly after the Korean War broke out. "There is a war going on, and you are going home?" asked his American friends in perplexity. However, he never had a moment of doubt, "China is my home and I need to go back and do something for her". Filled with such passion, the 22-year-old Lin came back to China and devoted himself to international communication for the new China. He later served as the associate editor of People's China, secretary to the president of the Foreign Languages Press, and deputy editor-in-chief and acting president of Beijing Review. He continued to study despite a tight work schedule. He found that those of his colleagues who improved themselves faster than others spent as much time studying the edited drafts by experts as he would in writing. Believing that "one can never be too good", he concentrated on studying each edited draft, trying to figure out where he could improve his work.

Lin believes that working with international partners, in addition to efforts in China, is the key to successful international communication. When working as the president of CIPG, he initiated a major book series entitled The Culture and Civilization of China in cooperation with Yale University Press. The series was well received by Chinese and overseas readers, with the English edition winning an R.R. Hawkins Award, thus proving a successful attempt to take Chinese culture to the world.

Lin witnessed and actually lived through the various phases in the development of China's international communication from the very beginning. Regarding international communication, he said: "We must understand the foreign audience and their culture. And to do that you should read the stories in their media, and figure out what they are thinking. Then, we can have a clear idea about how we can present China in a way that fulfills our purposes -- who we are talking to, what do we want to say, and how should we say it?"

Lin has always pursued excellence in translation. He spent 10 years translating The Analects of Confucius, during which he edited his manuscript five times. After the publication of his translation entitled Getting to Know Confucius: A New Translation of The Analects, he found this work to be too literal and not well-structured or logical enough, making understanding difficult for foreign readers. So, he spent another three years restructuring the translation, which resulted in the publication of Confucius Says: The Analects in 2017. In 2011, Lin was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award in Translation by the TAC.

As his wife and co-worker in his career of international communication, Zhang Qingnian co-translated many works with him, including Riverside Talks: A Friendly Dialogue Between an Atheist and a Christian, Shanghai Pudong Miracle, and International Strategic Situation and China's National Security. "I focus on the content, while she's responsible for the language," Lin explained. "Who has the final say in a disagreement?" On hearing this question, Lin laughed, declaring: "The one who is right does!" He believes that different texts require different translation approaches. Shanghai Pudong Miracle is about the history of the Pudong New District and talks about the people in different industries. "When we translated the book, we actually made field trips and interviews as if we were reporters," recalled Lin. "For example, we went to factories to understand the workers' operating procedures and to financial institutions to learn about their expertise."

Lin has never tried to translate what he does not understand. "I was asked to translate books on traditional Chinese medicine. Despite my wealth of experience in using it, I don't know the first thing about it for translation work," he said, with his usual sense of humor. According to him, the most important thing about translating is honesty: Don't pretend to know what you don't know, and don't introduce your own ideas that are not in the original text.

When talking about translating methods and requirements for translators, he said that a good translator must be knowledgeable about a wide variety of fields, must understand both languages and cultures, and must be well versed in at least a couple of areas of expertise. "Before we start to translate, we must first of all accurately understand the theme and thoughts of the original text. During translation, we must not deviate from the original work, but we must also imagine and express as much as a translator can. After translation, we should revisit and revisit, edit and edit. When the translation is finalized, we should take a look at the original text and the translation and summarize a few things to fill our own corpus with good translation."

Lin reads foreign newspapers and magazines every day, because he believes that "language evolves with time" and he must keep abreast of the times and learn "modern Chinese and modern English" so that his translation won't become outdated. In 2012, the TAC presented him with an Award for Special Contribution to Translation.

The 89-year-old Lin is now translating "Non-Offence", a chapter in Mozi. His aspiration is to study Chinese and overseas literary works embodying the "non-offense" philosophy and write his own book on this topic. He said that China is a peace-loving nation and the Chinese idea of harmony -- "Harmony is the most precious thing" -- is worthy of promotion.

Regarding the further development of translation, Lin said emotionally that today's world is developing at a speed faster than anyone could have expected and we must grasp the trend and adapt to the times in order to translate well. He also stresses the cultivation of talented translators, hoping that the education authorities can improve selection and assessment mechanisms, focus on developing high-caliber translators, and make translation education better and stronger.