The art of translation from logic to magic

This photo taken on Feb 13, 2025 shows a poster for the Chinese animated film Ne Zha 2 at a cinema in Chaoyang district of Beijing, capital of China. The recent uproar over the alleged translation of ji ji ru lyu ling as "quickly quickly biu biu biu" in Ne Zha 2's overseas versions — though later found untrue — has sparked a discussion on the complexities of cross-cultural communication. The phrase "long time no see", derived from the Chinese hao jiu bu jian, was once dismissed as pidgin English, but is widely used in everyday conversation today. Likewise, Chinese-American author Qiu Xiaolong's use of "to sprout like bamboo shoots after a spring rain" in his novel, Death of a Red Heroine, shows how literal translation can breathe new life into age-old expressions. While traditional methods of translation emphasize finding equivalent expressions, the success of phrases like "long time no see" and "to lose face" suggests that literal translation, when done creatively and with care, can serve as a powerful tool for cross-cultural communication.