Dr. Wai-yee Emily Poon

Introduction to Dr. Wai-yee Emily Poon (1960-2026)

Dr. Wai-yee Emily Poon is a prominent scholar in the field of legal translation and linguistics. She previously served as an Associate Professor in the School of Arts and Social Sciences at the then Open University of Hong Kong (now the Hong Kong Metropolitan University). Her work is foundational to the understanding of how English common law is translated and drafted in Chinese within the unique sociolinguistic context of Hong Kong.

1. Introduction and Biography

Dr. Poon was born, grew up and received her education in Hong Kong.

In 1992 Dr. Poon graduated from the City University of Hong Kong with a Master’s degree in Translation and Interpreting. In 2007 she was awarded a PhD in Legal Language and Translation by the University of Hong Kong, and in 2010 she received a Bachelor of Laws degree from the Northumbria University of the UK.

Professionally, Dr. Poon served for many years as a police interpreter and as a court interpreting officer.

She then worked at the then Open University of Hong Kong for 25 years, serving as an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Languages and Translation.

Dr. Poon specializes in the intersection of language and law. Her academic journey has focused on the challenges of maintaining legal precision while translating complex common law concepts into the Chinese language. She has been a key figure in training the next generation of legal translators in Hong Kong, emphasizing an interdisciplinary approach that combines legal knowledge with linguistic rigor.

In 2009 Dr. Poon, together with faculty and students from the Master of Legal Translation programme and several prominent figures from the legal community including the former Secretary for Justice Dr. Elsie Oi-sie Leung (GBM, JP), Dr. Anthony Francis Neoh (SC, JP), and Dr. Kit Hung Lau, co-founded Hong Kong Institute of Law and Translation Limited (now known as Hong Kong Institute of Law and Translation Limited), working to promote a bilingual legal system and to enhance the professional quality of bilingual legal translation in Hong Kong.

In 2015 she was selected by Recruit magazine as one of Hong Kong’s Top Ten Outstanding Managers in recognition of her contributions to legal translation.

In 2026, our dearest Dr. Poon passed away in Hong Kong.

2. Contribution to Legal Bilingualism

Dr. Poon’s contribution to Hong Kong legal bilingualism lies in her interdisciplinary analysis of legal translation, legal culture, terminology, and statutory interpretation. In her work on cultural transfer in legal translation, she argued that legal terms cannot be translated by simple one-to-one linguistic correspondence, because legal meaning is shaped by common-law concepts, socio-cultural context, and judicial interpretation. Through her analysis of Hong Kong bilingual legislation and terminology choices, she demonstrated the difficulties of achieving identical legal effect in Chinese translation. Her research highlighted both the importance and the limits of functional equivalence in legal translation, and emphasized that legal translators should produce faithful translations that preserve the substance of the source text while allowing the courts to interpret the law according to the relevant legal context.

Dr. Poon’s contribution to Hong Kong’s legal bilingualism lies principally in her rigorous analysis of legislative translation, legal terminology, and the translation of English common-law concepts into Chinese within Hong Kong’s bilingual statutory system. In one of her publications titled “The Pitfalls of Linguistic Equivalence: The Challenge for Legal Translation,” Dr. Poon showed that legal translation cannot be reduced to simple one-to-one linguistic equivalence. Because Chinese and English legislative texts in Hong Kong operate as parallel legal texts, translation must preserve the legal substance and intent of the source text while producing the target text in Chinese that is accurate, intelligible, and acceptable to its intended readers.

Her work examined how legal terms should be selected and standardised in bilingual legislation. She analysed the Department of Justice’s use of literal translation, descriptive translation, coinage and borrowing, using examples such as “common assault,” “slander,” “libel,” “possession,” “charge,” “attempt,” and “indecent assault.” Through these examples, she demonstrated the risks of terminological and conceptual incongruity. She argued that legal terms should accurately reflect their English common-law meanings, that established Hong Kong usage should generally be preferred where appropriate, and that coined terms should be used sparingly where existing Chinese expressions cannot adequately carry the relevant legal concept.

Dr. Poon also connected legal translation with statutory interpretation and legislative drafting. By examining bilingual statutory interpretation and comparing older, complex ordinances with more modern drafting, she showed that translation quality depends not only on lexical choices but also on sentence structures, legislative clarity, and the interpretive role of the courts. She therefore supported clearer legislative drafting, including plain English and simpler sentence structures, as a way to improve the effectiveness and accessibility of bilingual legislation.

Dr. Poon’s analysis was not a simple endorsement of functional equivalence. Rather, she treated functional adequacy, pragmatic adequacy and reader accessibility as important considerations, while insisting that accuracy, fidelity to legal meaning, and preservation of legislative intent remain paramount in legal translation. Her work thus helped clarify the methodological foundations of Hong Kong legal bilingualism: bilingual law should be accessible to the public, but it must also preserve common-law meaning, legal effect and the interpretive integrity of the statutory text.

3. Selected Publications / Papers presented at Conferences, Seminars, etc.:

  1. Poon W.Y. (1998), “The Best Ways to Learn Translation in Distance Education” (在遙距教育學習翻譯的最佳方法) presented at the 12th Annual Asian Association of Open Universities Conference (第十二屆亞洲遙距學習年會) organised by Asian Association of Open Universities (亞洲公開大學聯會) on 4 November 1998.
  2. Poon W.Y. (1998), “Language Change in Hong Kong Law Courts” (香港法庭語言的變遷) presented at the 4th Language International Conference on Teaching Translation and Interpreting: Building Bridges (第四屆翻譯及傳譯教學國際會議 : 建立橋樑) organised by The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Shanghai International Studies University on 5 December 1998.
  3. Li Z.E. & Poon W.Y. (1998), English-Chinese Dictionary of Law《英漢法律大詞典》 Hong Kong: Commercial Press Ltd.
  4. Poon W.Y. (1998), “A Book Review of S. C. Chau Translation and Life《翻譯與人生》, Translation Quarterly《翻譯季刊》”, Nos.7 & 8, 171-5.
  5. Poon W.Y. (1999), Presented a paper “How Female Students Cope with Studies in OUHK” in the 13th Annual Conference of the Asian Association of Open Universities organised by the Central Radio & TV University, pp.30-46.
  6. Poon W.Y. (1999), (translated by Wong S.P.) (王淑平譯), (香港公開大學的女學生如何處理學習問題) “How Female Students Cope with Studies in OUHK”,《中國遠程教育》China Distance Education, Nos.9 & 10, pp.77-79.
  7. Poon W.Y. (1999), “A Book Review of W. H. Ng & F. C. Fong (eds.) Practical Chinese-English Translation Technique《實用英語翻譯技巧》, Translation Quarterly《翻譯季刊》” Nos.11 & 12, 229-234.
  8. Poon W.Y. (1999), “(香港法庭語言的變遷) Language Change in H.K. Law Courts”,《中國語文通訊》Zhongguo Yuwen Tongxue, No.51, pp.18-25.
  9. Poon W.Y. Emily (2000), Translation of Alexander Tytler’s “The Principles of Translation (翻譯的準則)”, in T. H. Chan & N. F. Chang (eds.) Western Theories of Translation in Chinese《西方翻譯理論文集》Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong.
  10. Poon W.Y. Emily (2002), presented a paper entitled “The Processing of Legal Terminology for Use in a Bilingual Legal Dictionary” at the Asian-Pacific Workshop on Terminology, organized by the Terminology Association of Hong Kong.
  11. Poon, W.Y. Emily (2002), “The pitfalls of linguistic equivalence: The challenge for legal translation”, Target 14(1), 75-106.
  12. Poon W.Y. Emily and Margaret Taplin (2002), “Peer Support for Distance Learners”, Indian Journal of Open Learning, 11(1), pp. 23-39.
  13. Poon W.Y. Emily (2002), “The right of abode issue: Its implication on translation”, Meta: Translators’ Journal, 47(2), 211-224.
  14. Poon W.Y. Emily (2005), “The cultural transfer in legal translation”, International Journal for the Semiotic of Law 18(3), 307-323.
  15. Poon W.Y. Emily (2006), “The translation of judgments”, Meta: Translators’ Journal, 51(3), 551-569.
  16. Poon, W.Y. Emily (2010), “Strategies for Creating a Bilingual Legal Dictionary”, International Journal of Lexicography 23(1):83-103.
  17. Poon, W.Y. Emily (2013), “How Female Students Cope with Studies in OUHK”, International Women Online Journal of Distance Education 2(3): 23-31.
  18. 潘慧儀 李宗鍔 何冠驥 呂哲盈 (2015), English-Chinese Dictionary of Law (Revised)《英漢法律大詞典 (修訂版)》, Hong Kong: Commercial Press Ltd.
  19. Poon, W.Y. Emily (2018), “Sex and Gender in Legal Translation”, The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Translation, 449-465.
  20. Poon, W.Y. Emily and Leung, Sin-man Ester (2020), “Case study: A legal knowledge-based translation course for Hong Kong translation students”, Legal Translation and Bilingual Law Drafting in Hong Kong, Routledge.
  21. 潘慧儀 (2021),《法律翻譯情深種 第一篇: 證供翻譯》, 1-66.