Resituating the Grand Canal Translation Practices within the Communicative Ecology of Cultural Heritage

Heritage translation is often seen as a task of finding the right words. A museum label or a piece of text gets translated, and once the words look equivalent, the task is treated as done. This article looks instead at the work songs sung by boatmen on the Grand Canal. It argues that translating living heritage needs to be understood within the wider communicative setting where that heritage actually lives. The argument draws on a three-dimensional account of cultural space and on a close reading of examples of how this heritage has been presented internationally. What emerges is a recurring sense of detachment. The sound of a work song gets separated from the body that once laboured to produce it, and overseas audiences are left with a metaphor but no clear image of the physical work behind it. The article then suggests three principles that follow from this ecological view, while also acknowledging the practical limits that digital heritage projects often face. The sutdy tries to offer a shared starting point for heritage communication research and translation studies. It also provides a modest set of criteria for those who present the Grand Canal’s living heritage to international audiences.

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