Scientific Development Research

This study adopts the framework of intertextuality theory to analyze the bilingual government bulletins issued during the Hong Kong Tai Po Wang Fuk Court fire. By examining the differences between Chinese and English emergency texts in terms of terminology, syntactic structure, emotional expression, narrative logic, and authority construction, the research explores how intertextuality informs the selection of translation strategies. The findings reveal that emergency translation must ensure comprehensibility within the target context while maintaining strategic intertextual ties with the source context. Translators are tasked with finding functionally equivalent expressions within the target culture, while preserving high fidelity to the narrative logic and authority construction of the source text. As emergency language constitutes institutional discourse, translation serves the dual function of information relay and stance positioning. Transplanting the logic of Chinese administrative authority into an English discourse system constitutes a strategic intertextual “deviation” from target-language norms, yet it is also a necessary pathway toward building discourse and culture confidence. This study offers a robust theoretical lens for emergency translation and provides strategic implications for related practice and training.

Intertextuality; Emergency translation; Translation strategy reconfiguration