Reshaping Protest Coverage Through Translation: A Case Study of the 2019 Hong Kong Protests

Protest paradigm studies have yet to explore the crucial role of translation in disseminating protest news across languages and shaping public perceptions. This paper addresses this gap through a comparative analysis of BBC English reports on the 2019 Hong Kong protests and their translations by BBC Chinese. It examines how translation reshapes protest coverage through selective appropriation and labelling. The findings demonstrate that BBC Chinese produces a translated version seemingly tailored to the expectations of its target audience, resulting in a less explicit legitimisation of the protests. This paper contributes to the literature on the framing of protests in authoritarian states and reveals how the protest paradigm framework operates across linguistic and cultural contexts.