24 The Linguist Vol/55 No/4 2016
www.ciol.org.uk
edited, monitored and, frankly, censored
by their administrators and editors. Within
the resistance of the internet there lies
internal hegemony.
The existence of the grassroots amateur
translation and information communities
raises a number of questions. It is evident that
some of them subvert the existing authority
of companies and nations, but the efficacy
of their efforts is mixed. The volunteer
communities are subject to the internal
control of their own leaders, who are often
wary of courting controversy: governments
can close websites and companies can bring
lawsuits. A recent study by Harvard University
researchers found that employees of the
Chinese government are paid 50 cents a post
for positive comments.
11
Every translator is a member of more than
one group: the source and target language
FEATURES
communities, the internet community and the
nation. While Chinese volunteer translators
are determined to disseminate fresh news
and ideas, they may have an overriding
loyalty to China. With technological tools,
translators with attitude can work with or
against authority.
Notes
1 Moskvitch, K (May 2012) 'Cracks in the Wall:
Will China's Great Fire Wall backfire?', BBC
News
2 Mozur, P (2016) 'U.S. sees Beijing's Control of
Internet as a Trade Barrier'. In International New
York Times, 8/4/16
3 According to Wikipedia, WeChat has
650 million active users, with 70 million outside
China. Facebook has over 1.59 billion active users
4 Lee, H K (2011) 'Participatory Media Fandom:
A case study of anime fansubbing'. In Media
Culture & Society, 33,8, 1131-1147
5 DigitalisAkujin 2004 http://forums.anime
suki.com/archive/index.php/t-24401.html
Accessed 8/7/16
6 Op.cit. Lee
7 Stray, J (June 2010) 'The Wikipedia of News
Translation: Yeeyan.org's volunteer community'.
In NiemanLab, http://bit.ly/1YtV4lW
Accessed 8/7/16
8 Ibid.
9 Yu, C, 'Why Do They Translate in
Collaboration? An ethnographic study of
Yeeyan'. Paper at 'Researching Collaborative
Translation: An international symposium', Hong
Kong Baptist University, 7-8/4/16
10 http://bit.ly/28HgIr7 Accessed 8/7/16
11 King, G, Pan, J, Roberts, M E (2016) 'How
the Chinese Government Fabricates Social
Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, Not
Engaged Argument', Harvard University
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