true tone translation
Chinese to English translation services
Specializing in literary, academic and sustainability texts
“Chris’s professionalism and highly accurate translations drive up the quality of our reporting on sustainability issues in China.”
“I wish to express my gratitude to Christopher MacDonald, whose excellent translation forms the greater part of the content of this book.”
“MacDonald has provided his readers with a masterly new translation of Sun Tzu.”
Translation samples
click on book covers
Classical Chinese: Sun-Tzu’s Art of War
Contemporary short fiction: ‘The Story of Ah-Ming’
Academic nonfiction: history/economics
Self-introduction
Hi, I’m Christopher MacDonald, seen at the top of the page hosting the launch of The Book of Beijing at the 2023 Manchester Literary Festival with authors Wen Zhen and Gu Shi.
I began as a translator and interpreter in Taiwan and the PRC during the 1990s, and in 2019, after a long spell working in other fields, returned full-time to the translation profession. I am now based in South Wales in the UK, with a focus on literary, academic and sustainability translation.
I received the Comma Press Emerging Translator award in 2019 for my translation of ‘The Story of Ah-Ming’ by Wang Zhanhei, and in 2020 my translation of ‘12 Todays’ by Temu Suyan was Commended in the Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry in Translation. In December 2024 I was co-winner of the Annual Taiwan/Ireland Poetry Translation Competition, run by Trinity Centre for Literary & Cultural Translation and the National Museum of Taiwan Literature.
2025 brought publication by Cambridge University Press of my mammoth translation of Institutional Genes: A Comparative Analysis of the Origins of China’s Institutions.
I’m also a DPSI-qualified public service interpreter, and have interpreted for the UK courts, police, local authorities and the NHS. I hold an MA (Translation & Interpretation) and an MSc (Sustainability & Adaptation), and am a member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists and the Society of Authors — click on logos below.
A translation project to discuss? Please get in touch