Communicating across boundaries and cultures

Deng Xiaoping's translator explains how her linguistic proficiency inserted her into such historical events as Sino-US relations' establishment. Mike Peters reports.

Today, a well-educated young person in Beijing will have plenty of chances to meet people from the United States and other Western countries.

In the 1970s, the first American Shi Yanhua ever spoke to was Walter Cronkite, the famous TV news anchor.

"When I entered the foreign ministry," says the retired translator for former leader Deng Xiaoping and other Chinese leaders, "there were only 49 countries that had diplomatic relations with China. During the 'cultural revolution' (1966-76) there was chaos, very little diplomatic functions and so on. You didn't have much work. You didn't learn much."

But in 1971, China's seat in the United Nations was restored.

"It happened that my husband and I were sent with the first group to New York. He was a French interpreter. I was an English interpreter," she says.

"At that time there was no direct flight between China and the United States. We had only two foreign airlines, Pakistan's and Air France, so we took Air France from Shanghai to Burma to Karachi - I think then to Teheran and then Cairo - and then finally to Paris. We went around the biggest circle on the Earth!"

Back then, she notes, Western airlines couldn't fly over Soviet territory.

When they boarded the Air France flight to New York, there were some Americans on the plane, including two cameramen and a tall man who went up to the first-class seats to sit near the chairman of the Chinese delegation, Qiao Guanhua, who was then vice-foreign minister.

"He was Walter Cronkite, from CBS," Shi says.

Translators act as bridge between China and France	Translators need to strike a balance