The Issue of Biomedicalization of Translating Chinese Medicine Texts

The Issue of Biomedicalization of Translating Chinese Medicine Texts

Pritzker etc. wrote:

One of the most debated issues in the translation of Chinese medicine is the issue of bio­medicalization. Here, you have many transla­tors arguing that Chinese medicine must be put into modern medical terms in order to avoid being seen as a relic in the contemporary glob­al medical world. In other cases, you have translators arguing for a more traditional approach to translation that captures original meanings in the framework of classical medicine. In evaluating a translation, it is useful to ascertain where a translator falls on this spectrum, and whether he or she has maintained consistency throughout the text. It is not always easy to discern. In translating a contemporary integrative medical text, for example, many biomedical terms may have been used in the original Chinese text. In translation, biomedical terms are therefore appropriate. In the translation of a classical text, however, the inclusion of biomedical terms often signals an adaptive translation that could have benefit­ed from the participation of a more classically trained translator. This is another area in which it is useful to look for translations created using a team approach, with relevant experts provid­ing guidance on when and where to relate the language of Chinese medicine to biomedicine. Relationships do exist here and are important to convey. However, generally speaking this is not something that the translator should try to accomplish in language in the context of a trans­lation. When a translator does seek to link tra­ditional translations with biomedical terms, one solution that has been proposed involves the in­clusion of dual translations for certain terms. This can most easily be applied to disease names, for example using the dual translation “wind-fire eye/acute conjunctivitis” in order to facili­tate the link between a traditional condition in Chinese medicine with a biomedical diagnosis.

The paper is available here.