The "other" function of translation : on translation and education in Hong Kong

This paper looks into the relationship between translation and education in Hong Kong from the colonial period to the postcolonial era. Despite the fact that translation has long been a university course and there are even Translation Departments in Hong Kong's universities, the focus of this paper is not on university education but secondary education. The investigation is triggered by the addition of translation as a component in the New Chinese Language subject curriculum which was implemented in 2009 when the governmental endeavour to engineer cultural identification materialized. Translation was recruited for a role different from the colonial period when the acquisition of translation skills was linked to practical needs.