Hunan TV, the Chinese broadcast station that airs “Happy Camp” where Korean actor Song Joong-ki recently guested and boosted ratings, has a new TV series.
What’s on Weibo reported that the much-anticipated show, "The Interpreter," started to air on May 25. The series focuses on the professional lives of people who work in China’s foreign language sector. However, professional interpreters criticize the program for not being realistic.
The show is an adaptation from a 2006 novel with the same title, authored by Miu Juan, a female Chinese-French interpreter. It revolves around Quai Fei, played by Yang Mi, a young Chinese girl who majors in French language and just started working. Her partner in the series is Cheng Jiayang, a handsome male translator portrayed by Huang Xuan.
During the premiere of the show, “The Interpreter” got a national viewer rating of 6.87 percent, making its Episode 1 a hit. Within five days, the topic got more than a billion readers.
“The Interpreter” also airs over online video platforms Mangguo TV and LeTV which the first episode got over 100 million views. On Viki, an Asian TV drama platform, the series got a 9.3 percent viewership.
The show got off to a good start, thanks to Yang Mi’s more than 61 million followers on Weibo. Beyond Yang Mi’s fans, the show has followers who are into translation and interpreting. Actors could be heard speaking French while inside interpreter’s booths and in conferences.
Like newscasting, translating is seen by many Chinese as a glamorous job because of the travels involved and having a wide range of international contacts. As China goes global, the ability to speak foreign languages fluently is also a desired capability among young Chinese.
According to Global Times, the country’s Ministry of Education launched university Master's degree programs in translation and interpretation in 2007 to meet the growing demand for such professionals. So far, 206 higher education institutions have permit to run Master of Translation and Interpretation programs across China.
Among the criticisms aired by professional interpreters is the lack of pen and paper, a standard tool of trade among language experts, when Yang Mi interprets while inside an empty booth. The cast’s awkward and low level of French proficiency has also been scored by critics.