和伤害中文使用者的语言暴力作斗争 Combatting Language Violence Against Chinese Speakers
A translator who wishes to remain anonymous shares a story of the impact of the lack of language access on a Chinese detainee inside a violent U.S. immigration detention center.
“While volunteering in a detention center on the U.S.-MX border, I was asked to support a Chinese-speaking detainee who had no one to interpret for her. She had fled domestic violence and economic violence and traveled all the way through Mexico to reach the U.S., only to then be detained at the border. She spent months in detention and was the only person who spoke Chinese amongst all detainees, meaning she had been subjected not only to the cruel and violent immigration detention complex but also to linguistic deprivation. When she met me, she said she hadn’t been able to communicate with a single person in months since being detained. ICE had denied her interpretation access the whole time. She was painfully isolated to the extent that she asked me if we could just chat, instead of discussing her case with the attorney, because it had been so long since she’d had a conversation. Ultimately she won her liberation from detention and is now safe with family members in the U.S. But this cruel linguistic deprivation should be considered a form of torture instead of normalized! It is the reality for countless asylum seekers subjected to the nightmare of detention. As an interpreter, I frequently witness language violence against speakers of both Mandarin and 方言 (Fāngyán: “local languages” or “dialects”) across every system of U.S. society from medical care to housing, to education, etc. There wouldn’t have to be such rampant language violence if we as a society invested in talented native speakers and provided job pipelines into translation work.”
“I believe language justice means no matter what language you speak, you have the right to speak it while getting what you deserve. I want to highlight a project we worked on last month. We translated a series of text messages and handwritten letters from Chinese to English to support a survivor of harassment and domestic violence. It was a stressful case, but our translator did a great job; the documents are now being used as key evidence for the supporting attorney. It was 5 documents, 9 pages in total and all completed in one day by our amazing interpreter.” – Lirong Shi, Chinese Team Lead, Respond Crisis Translation
Today on #ChineseLanguageDay 2023, the Respond team recommits to the fight to dismantle systemic language violence and celebrates all of our dedicated Chinese translators and interpreters and our incredible team lead, Lirong Shi. Their work is tireless and essential.
语言正义 Yǔyán zhèngyì Language Justice