350,000 words translated for royal China exhibition

Lingtech, which specialises in translation and inter–cultural dialogue, has donated project hours and proofreading for a large catalogue accompanying the exhibition “Treasures from Imperial China – The Forbidden City and the Danish Monarchy”, to be opened by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe on October 4. The catalogue contains 350,000 words, translated into Danish, English and Chinese. These words tell the story of friendly relations between Denmark and China, and describe the exhibits, around 400 in number. The sponsorship has a value of around 250,000 Danish crowns.

“When we were asked, eighteen months ago, we agreed to sponsor the project and the proofreading, and the Royal Silver Vault was given the translation at cost price. We knew that it would be a huge job to manage the project and translate 350,000 words into Danish, English and Chinese. But we did it, because we wanted to make our contribution to ensuring that this China exhibition was as good as it possibly could be. It doesn’t often happen that small businesses such as ours act as sponsors, but we chose to take it on, because we want to play our part in the community,” explains Birgit Pichat, director of Lingtech.

Day-to-day project management has been the job of Lea Jørgensen. She has coordinated the freelance translators, and has been the contact point, for instance, with the Royal Silver Vault, which, together with the Royal Exhibition Fund, is responsible for the exhibition and the scholarly content of the large catalogue.

“We have 150 copies of the catalogue to give to customers and others who would be interested to see the scale of projects we can deliver. Even though the work has been extremely hard, it’s been incredibly interesting and challenging,” says Lea Jørgensen.

The underlying theme running through the catalogue is globalisation, in the sense that the catalogue shows the long traditions of collaboration, trading exchange and outsourcing contracts which have existed between Denmark and China for many centuries.

“Trading and outsourcing contracts with China are not just a phenomenon of our own times. There is a long tradition of a special trading relationship between Denmark and China. For example, the Danish Monarchy and the Danish nobility sent orders to China for the production of porcelain or lacquered furniture to Danish designs,” explains Lea Jørgensen.

Largest in the Royal Silver Vault’s history

Lingtech has donated working hours to the project management of the trilingual translation process, has found and tested translators and managed the whole work process including translation, proofreading, updates and collaboration with the printers Boje-Mobeck, who are responsible for the printing of the catalogue.

“Lingtech’s work has been of considerable importance - they have provided us with project management and expertise, and they have coordinated contacts with translators. This has been an eighteen-month process, and they have managed it well,” says Ole Villumsen Krog, director of the Royal Silver Vault.

The Royal Silver Vault and the Royal Exhibition Fund has arranged 13 exhibitions in Denmark and 22 abroad since 1982. The China exhibition will be the largest in the Royal Silver Vault’s history

“We are very proud of this assignment, which has been an enormous job lasting eighteen months. But it’s been a job which will mean a great deal for us, for the guests of the exhibition and the readers of the exhibition catalogue,” says Lingtech director Birgit Pichat.

The exhibition will be opened on October 4 at 2.30 pm by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe and His Royal Highness Prince Henrik at Christiansborg Palace.

The exhibition is open to the public from October 5 up to and including December 10. It is open from 10 am to 4 pm every day of the week, except Mondays, when opening hours are 2 pm - 8 pm.

Further information about Lingtech or about China: telephone (+45) 33 25 71 71, director Birgit Pichat or project manager Lea Jørgensen.

For further information about the exhibition, group bookings, guided tours in all languages; tel.: 40 40 83 00.

Among the exhibits is a birdcage containing a mechanical bird. It belonged to the Emperor of China, and came to Denmark the year after the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen.The exhibition presents some 400 items from the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City, Beijing, some of which have never previously been outside China, and from the private collections of Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik.