Dissertation defence (Translation Studies): MA Xiaoyi Cheng

MA Xiaoyi Cheng defends the dissertation in Translation Studies titled “Feminist translation practices on Chinese social media” at the University of Turku on 13 November 2026 at 12.00 (University of Turku, Publicum, Pub1, Assistentinkatu 7, Turku).

Opponent: Associate Professor, Dr. Olga Castro (University of Warwick, UK)

Custos: Professor Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov (University of Turku)

Summary of the Doctoral Dissertation:

This dissertation examines how translation participates in the production, circulation, and reshaping of feminisms on Chinese social media. It focuses on three cases since the early 2020s: the contested translation of narratives surrounding South Korea's 6B4T feminist movement, feminist subtitling by the social media account @subtitle girl, and a community-led retranslation of the film Barbie.

The findings show that feminist translation on social media goes beyond the neutral transfer of meanings. The first case reveals how feminist knowledge is negotiated and contested through translation in relation to local contexts. The second demonstrates how translators and audiences collaboratively shape the presentation and interpretation of subtitled feminist content. The third highlights the role of affect and emotion in the retranslation of Barbie and its reception. Across these cases, social media platforms help enable and shape translation practices, influencing what gets translated and how translated content is produced, circulated, and made visible.

Bringing these findings together, the dissertation proposes the concept of "social-media-driven feminist translation" to highlight translation as a collaborative, affectively invested, and platform-mediated process of knowledge production and online content creation. It broadens feminist translation research beyond its traditional focus on literary texts and contributes to our understanding of how feminisms are mediated across linguistic, cultural, and digital boundaries.