Since China reopened its doors to the outside world in 1978, there have been tidal waves of literary translations, of world classics as well as contemporary fictional and poetic works, and a consequent influx of Western thoughts and ideas. The last two decades have witnessed a growing interest among scholars and theorists in translation studies and their rigorous efforts to make it an independent discipline. Translation scholars are engaged in rethinking old translation problems such as the nature of translation, translation strategies employed, and criteria to evaluate practical translations; they also encounter new problems arising in changing social and cultural contexts, which require of them continuous efforts to update their analytical methods and extend their research vision.

In this age of globalisation, when ever-increasing academic exchanges connect intellectuals worldwide through conferences, workshops and publications, translation scholars from different countries are engaged in interactive dialogue, bringing the views and models that have proved fruitful in their respective approaches. This open and interdisciplinary academic milieu in recent years has facilitated interaction between Chinese translation scholars and their Western counterparts. As a result, this exchange helps to build an awareness of the multiplicity of perspectives among Chinese scholars and invites them to apply the concepts and models provided by Western translation theories to address local issues and further develop them. At the same time, voices of Chinese scholars are widely heard at the different cultural exchanges, and their achievements add to the approaches to translation studies and deepen its scope into related issues.

In the West since the mid-20th century, translation studies has been an emerging discipline, assimilating ideas from its traditionally related fields – hermeneutics, philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, comparative literature and literary criticism.