"Translators who don't have degrees in translation or any other relative certificates compete with professional translators by charging super low rates and promising clients unreasonable deadlines," said Geng Jiazhen, who obtained a master's degree in translation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) in 2005 and is now working as a full-time translator for the Representative Office of the United Nations Children's Fund in Beijing. "As a result, they can't guarantee translation quality. Their behaviors damage the ‘translator image' and disturb the market."

"The problem isn't exactly all the client's fault though," said Nancy Tsai, a freelance interpreter and translator in Beijing. "Many people do not understand the specialized training that is needed for translation and interpretation." Tsai obtained a master's degree in translation and interpretation from MIIS in 2006.

"Compared with the rising demands for professional interpreters, there are few professional interpreting schools in the world," Tsai said. It was not until last year that universities in China widely began to offer master's degree courses in translation. There are even fewer colleges that offer interpretation training on the Chinese mainland.

Tsai said she rarely works for local Chinese clients because of the low rates.

"The professional interpreting community therefore has a responsibility to educate the client in the professional aspects of the trade," she said. "Otherwise, everyone in the profession will likely suffer the fate of becoming blue-collar intellectuals."

No contract guarantees

Another threat to the large quantities of freelance translators and interpreters is that they often work without contracts.

Teresa Tang, a self-employed senior interpreter based in China, told Beijing Review only one out of every 10 translation agencies sign contracts with freelance translators and interpreters in the country. Tang, who received a master's degree in conference interpretation from MIIS in 1999, has logged more than 2,000 hours of simultaneous and consecutive interpretation over seven years.

"There is no guarantee of interpreters' interests without contracts," she said. "For example, the interpreter will suffer a loss if a conference is cancelled. It could also give rise to dispute over the quality of the translation."

Most demand for interpretation services in China comes from Beijing and Shanghai. Tang said the quality of services in Beijing is generally much better than in Shanghai due to the fact that the capital hosts more large official conferences that have higher service. Most of the interpretation work in Shanghai is business-related, and companies there tend to offer services at very low rates to stay competitive.

Oh, the misery

Compared to interpreters, translators are much more miserable and "given neither the time nor the money to do a good job, " said Eric Abrahamsen, a freelance literary translator in Beijing who also offers agent-type services for foreign publishers, literary agents and journalists.

The biggest problem for foreign publishers of Chinese literature is "a lack of information," Abrahamsen said. "Foreign publishers simply don't feel confident enough about choosing Chinese writers or books, and they often won't take the risk."

Cindy Carter, a freelance translator of Chinese literature and film since 1999, agrees.

"Literary translation is still a risky business," she said. "For every book deal, there are at least three or four other projects that fall through or fail to materialize. This can mean a lot of wasted effort on the part of the translator and agent."

For most of the translation agencies in China, literary translation accounts for fewer than 10 percent of their contracts, and they mainly focus on commercial and technical translations.

Apart from low translator fees, Carter said other downsides of the business include the limited number of Chinese books translated and published overseas, poor sales figures for Chinese literature in overseas markets and the long gap between the inception and the completion of a book project.

"All of these hurdles are related, " said Carter, who has translated more than 40 Chinese films, two novels and dozens of essays, short stories and scripts. "Taken together, they magnify the problem of selling, translating and publishing Chinese literature abroad."