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Great Translation Movement
The Great Translation Movement (simplified Chinese: 大翻译运动; traditional Chinese: 大翻譯運動; pinyin: Dà Fānyì Yùndòng; Zhuyin Fuhao: ㄉㄚˋㄈㄢ ㄧˋㄩㄣˋㄉㄨㄥˋ) is a Twitter account launched in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It seeks to document displays of ultranationalist, pro-Russian and anti-Western sentiment in the People's Republic of China (PRC) by translating comments found in the country's Internet. The languages it has translated to include English, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. The Guardian observed that the Great Translation Movement (GTM) has been a source for English-language speakers to understand the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chinese state media's reaction towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although experts cautioned seeing the posts as representative of the Chinese public's views, citing China's highly censored media environment and personal biases within GTM. Others have pointed out that translated nationalist content can paint an overly simplistic picture and runs the risk of conflating the Chinese public with the CCP. Chinese state media have been highly critical of GTM and said that it is part of a propaganda campaign by "hostile foreign forces" against the country. Despite primarily focusing on posts from within PRC-controlled internet spaces, GTM has also translated posts from Taiwanese politicians.
The Great Translation Movement originated on several Chinese-language subreddits. Giving a reason for its founding, a GTM participant said in an interview that hoped that "people in more countries realize that Chinese people are not 'warm, hospitable, and gentle' as the CCP's foreign propaganda declares, but instead are a collective that is proud, arrogant, vigorously in love with populism, cruel, bloodthirsty, and completely lacking in sympathy." (希望能够让更多国家的人明白，中国人并不是和中共大外宣当中的形象一样'热情，好客，温良'，而是骄傲，自大，民粹主义兴盛，残忍，嗜血，毫无同情心的集合体). In an interview with the Business Insider, it stated that it aimed to criticize the "banal evil of the Chinese people". Participants called for commentary that supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the Chinese internet to be translated and disseminated on foreign social media platforms. GTM called for monetary support for the Ukrainian people. Within the first week of its establishment, donations made publicly by the organizers on Reddit reached approximately $10,000.
On March 2, one of the subreddits originally organizing GTM, r/ChonglangTV was shut down by Reddit for "exposing privacy of others." The ban was in response to the doxing of a Weibo user who claimed to block the remittance of money to Ukraine. The Great Translation Movement then moved to other platforms such as Twitter and Pincong.[citation needed] On March 19, Pincong employees were detained by the Chinese government after starting a channel for the GTM on Pincong's home page.[unreliable source?]
In addition to posts from mainland China, it has targeted posts from Taiwanese politicians, such as a post from former Kuomintang chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu, who made comments in support of China's policies in Xinjiang, specifically denying any forced labor, following a visit to the region.
Political scholar Cai Xia, a former professor at the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party, expressed support for GTM. She made the following comment:
...This translation not only exposes the CCP's totalitarian ideology that poisons the Chinese people, ...it also reminds global governments and people to be wary of the infiltration and poisoning of the CCP's external propaganda, false information, false narratives, and misleading public opinion space.
Some Chinese dissidents have expressed support for GTM because it creates "a dilemma for Chinese censorship authorities." Censoring extremist or disturbing content written by Chinese nationalists could alienate CCP supporters, but not censoring such content ends up constituting tacit approval.
According to Xiao Qiang of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, the Great Translation Movement "disrupted the Chinese government's communication machine...[t]hat's why it's so upset."
Hub AI
Great Translation Movement AI simulator
(@Great Translation Movement_simulator)
Great Translation Movement
The Great Translation Movement (simplified Chinese: 大翻译运动; traditional Chinese: 大翻譯運動; pinyin: Dà Fānyì Yùndòng; Zhuyin Fuhao: ㄉㄚˋㄈㄢ ㄧˋㄩㄣˋㄉㄨㄥˋ) is a Twitter account launched in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It seeks to document displays of ultranationalist, pro-Russian and anti-Western sentiment in the People's Republic of China (PRC) by translating comments found in the country's Internet. The languages it has translated to include English, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. The Guardian observed that the Great Translation Movement (GTM) has been a source for English-language speakers to understand the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chinese state media's reaction towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although experts cautioned seeing the posts as representative of the Chinese public's views, citing China's highly censored media environment and personal biases within GTM. Others have pointed out that translated nationalist content can paint an overly simplistic picture and runs the risk of conflating the Chinese public with the CCP. Chinese state media have been highly critical of GTM and said that it is part of a propaganda campaign by "hostile foreign forces" against the country. Despite primarily focusing on posts from within PRC-controlled internet spaces, GTM has also translated posts from Taiwanese politicians.
The Great Translation Movement originated on several Chinese-language subreddits. Giving a reason for its founding, a GTM participant said in an interview that hoped that "people in more countries realize that Chinese people are not 'warm, hospitable, and gentle' as the CCP's foreign propaganda declares, but instead are a collective that is proud, arrogant, vigorously in love with populism, cruel, bloodthirsty, and completely lacking in sympathy." (希望能够让更多国家的人明白，中国人并不是和中共大外宣当中的形象一样'热情，好客，温良'，而是骄傲，自大，民粹主义兴盛，残忍，嗜血，毫无同情心的集合体). In an interview with the Business Insider, it stated that it aimed to criticize the "banal evil of the Chinese people". Participants called for commentary that supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the Chinese internet to be translated and disseminated on foreign social media platforms. GTM called for monetary support for the Ukrainian people. Within the first week of its establishment, donations made publicly by the organizers on Reddit reached approximately $10,000.
On March 2, one of the subreddits originally organizing GTM, r/ChonglangTV was shut down by Reddit for "exposing privacy of others." The ban was in response to the doxing of a Weibo user who claimed to block the remittance of money to Ukraine. The Great Translation Movement then moved to other platforms such as Twitter and Pincong.[citation needed] On March 19, Pincong employees were detained by the Chinese government after starting a channel for the GTM on Pincong's home page.[unreliable source?]
In addition to posts from mainland China, it has targeted posts from Taiwanese politicians, such as a post from former Kuomintang chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu, who made comments in support of China's policies in Xinjiang, specifically denying any forced labor, following a visit to the region.
Political scholar Cai Xia, a former professor at the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party, expressed support for GTM. She made the following comment:
...This translation not only exposes the CCP's totalitarian ideology that poisons the Chinese people, ...it also reminds global governments and people to be wary of the infiltration and poisoning of the CCP's external propaganda, false information, false narratives, and misleading public opinion space.
Some Chinese dissidents have expressed support for GTM because it creates "a dilemma for Chinese censorship authorities." Censoring extremist or disturbing content written by Chinese nationalists could alienate CCP supporters, but not censoring such content ends up constituting tacit approval.
According to Xiao Qiang of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, the Great Translation Movement "disrupted the Chinese government's communication machine...[t]hat's why it's so upset."