Translating Shanghai: The Untranslatable in the translation of a city

This essay problematizes the translation of one city as another: Shanghai for instance as ‘New York’ or ‘Paris.’ Such tropes have long been popular in literature and journalism. By viewing the issue through the lens of translation, the essay proposes to question the equivalence between cities that such statements presume. Behind the presumption of equivalence are political, cultural, and social ‘Untranslatables’ that emerge at the moment of translation. The paper focuses also on issues of intersemiotic translation that arise in the multimedia book, Disappearing Shanghai. The essay discusses how multiple translations of Shanghai co-operate with, conflict with and defy one another, leading to a constantly changing perspective on the city.