University of Glasgow-Nankai University Joint Graduate School

The programme trains students to be expert translators and interpreters who adhere to the highest professional standards and who are culturally and ethically aware. 

The programme further aims to:

• Provide students with both practical skills and theoretical knowledge;
• Improve students’ knowledge of both Chinese and Anglophone cultures and languages;
• Develop competencies that will allow students to work for language service providers, international businesses, cross-cultural companies and governmental organisations;
• Develop skills to translate a broad range of texts between Chinese and English, including literature, journalistic texts, technical materials, and academic articles; and develop an expertise in interpreting for audiences of international conferences and other cross-cultural and international events.
• The programme balances Translation Studies theory with practical translation work, meaning you will develop both academic and professional skills, preparing you for the translation profession or PhD research in the field.

Programme Structure:

This programme is taken over two years of full-time study and includes core courses offered by both universities. You will also be required to submit a dissertation.

Nankai University courses may include:

• Simultaneous interpreting
• Literary and cultural translation
• Translation of commerce, laws and diplomacy
• Advanced sight interpreting
• Consecutive interpreting in theory and practice
• Mandarin advanced translation and language study

University of Glasgow course may include:

• Translation Studies in theory and practice
• Research methods in Translation Studies
• Translation technology: terminology management and subtitling
• Approaches to translation and the professional environment 

This programme caters to China’s increasing demand for highly skilled and specialist translators and interpreters across a wide range of industries and on an international level.

You will acquire skills relevant to a variety of careers that may involve translation or require advanced language and communication skills. 

These include:

• Marketing and public relations
• Careers in writing, including publishing, journalism or technical writing
• Language teaching
• International commerce
• Government work
• The creative industries, including TV, film, theatre.

Prof. Zhang Zhizhong works at the College of Foreign Languages, Nankai University, and adjunct professor at Institute of Cross Culture and World Literature, Tianjin Normal University. He also works as the director and English secretary general of World Association for Chinese Studies.

He holds a PhD in Translation of Classics and Translation Theories from Nankai University (2005), an MA in English and American Literature from Tianjin Foreign Studies University (1996), and a BA in English Language and Literature from Zhengzhou University (1989).

Prof. Zhang’s research interest lies particularly in the translation of Chinese poetry into English. He has published over 100 books as well as 100 academic papers. Also, he has undertaken 2 projects funded by the National Office of Philosophy and Social Sciences of China and 1 key project funded by the Tianjin Office of Philosophy and Social Sciences.

Key Publications

Xu Yuanchong and the Art of Translation (2006 ), Hubei Education Press;

A Comparative Study of the English Translation of Mao Zedong Poems (2008), China Social Sciences Press;

An Aesthetics Study of C-E Poetry Translation (2015), The Commercial Press;

Selected Poems of Han Yu (Chinese-English) (2015), The Earth Culture Press;

300 Tang Poems (Chinese-English) (2016), The Earth Culture Press;

Gems of Chinese Poetry (Chinese-English) (2016), The Earth Culture Press;

Selected Poems of Duan Guang’an (2018), American Academic Press;

800 Tang Quatrains (Chinese-English) (2019), Wuhan University Press;

Between Mountains and Waters (2019), American Academic Press;

Poetic Yangzhou: Classical Poems and Couplets About Yangzhou (Chinese-English) (2020), Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

Dr. Lisha Xu is a Lecturer in Translation Studies (with Mandarin) at School of Modern Languages and Cultures at University of Glasgow. Her research interests are theatre and literary translation in general, especially translating xiqu for the Anglophone stage and the presence of Chinese diaspora translators in post-colonial literature in the early 20th century. She has been invited to contribute book chapters to academic essay collections to be published by Routledge and by Hodder & Stoughton (Hachette). She is the guest editor of a special issue of JoSTrans on theatre translation, to be published in 2025. She is currently writing a research monograph on the topic of xiqu translation – based on an examination of the materiality of cultural exchange between Europe and China in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Key publications:

 Journal

Xu L. (2025) “Feminism and Androgyny: Gender politics in Contemporary Classical Chinese

Opera” The Journal of Specialised Translation (JosTrans), Special Issue No.43.

Xu L. (2024) “Exploring the Affordance of Feminism in the Translation of 'Rescuing One's Sister in the Wind and Dust' for the London Stage.” The Journal of The Society for Asian Humanities (JOSAH): Special issue on Sino and Western Encounters in Theatre Translation (Eds. Enza De Francisci and Lu Shisheng).

Xu L. & Johnston D. (2022). “Between Safeguarding and Translating: Chinese Classical Opera and Spanish Golden Age Theatre.” Translation Studies, 15(3), 323-339.

Xu L. & Johnston D. (2021). “Ecologies of Translation: Chinese Classical Opera and Spanish Golden Age Theatre.” Boletín de la Biblioteca de Menéndez Pelayo, 97(1), 197-224.

Chapters

Xu, L. (2024) “Advocacy and Recognition: Chinese Diaspora Translator S.I. Hsiung.” The Translation as Advocacy: Perspectives on Practice, Performance and Publishing (Eds. Catherine Boyle & Sarah Maitland). London: John Murray Press. 123-148.

Xu, L. (2024) “An Anxiety of Representation: A Case Study of Translation Studies in China.” Debates in Translation Studies (Eds. Susan Bassnett & David Johnston). London: Routledge. In Press.

Xu, L. (2025) “Re-assembling Fragments Across Time and Space: Folk Narrative Translation in Lady Precious Stream.” In The Myriad Faces of Heroes and Heroines: Folkloric Tradition and Modern Contemporaries. (Eds. Kelly Chan Kar Yue, Lau Chi Sum and Julian Ward). Singapore: Springer.

Nathanial Gardner is a Professor of Latin American Text, Image, and Culture at the University of Glasgow.

His doctoral studies focused on the methods writers used to represent marginal classes in contemporary Mexico. This led him to publish books and articles on the works of Elena Poniatowska and other Mexican women writers such as Laura Esquivel and Silvia Molina as well as branching into the study of photography as a way of understanding text-image relations in Latin America.

Nathanial is the author of a bilingual edition of Elena Poniatowska’s novel Querido Diego te abraza Quiela, the translator of award-winning anthology of Spanish poetry and the recent author of The Study of Photography in Latin America which was published by the University of New Mexico Press.