Join the Project! Are you interested in translating a Chinese film into English – or part of this website into Chinese? Are you an educator, student, or website designer with ideas about how to improve this online resource? Are you a scholar who can share studies, historical materials, event announcements, or other relevant resources?
The Chinese Film Classics Project needs you!
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
The Chinese Film Classics Project is a collective scholarly effort that is currently seeking volunteers, including:
- Transcribers, of Chinese-language film dialogue and text
- Translators, especially between Chinese and English – other languages welcome!
- Educators, with ideas about curricular needs and uses, or mobilizing their students
- Students, interested in research and volunteer opportunities
- Scholars, with sources, studies, and resources to share related to Chinese cinema history
- Tech whizzes, who are interested in contributing their subtitling, video production, or website design skills to enhancing this project
- Advocates, who will spread the word about this learning resource through their networks, in English, Chinese, and other languages
CURRENT PRIORITIES
Specific needs of the Project currently include:
- Transcriptions of Chinese dialogue in early sound films – a key step in preparing an accurate translation
- Translations of sound films – from the 1930s, the war era, and (a new Project development) the early Mao era – from Chinese into English
- Translations of CFC website materials, from English into Chinese, to make this website more accessible to Chinese-language users
- Subtitling of translated films – the meticulous technical work of adding a translation to an .mp4 file, and producing a hard-coded subtitled version.
- Outreach to members of the public who might be unaware of this resource, including film buffs, teachers, students, scholars, librarians, journalists, YouTubers, social media influencers, film festivals and curators, filmmakers – anyone who might benefit from this project. You can make a difference!
CONTACT
Contact the Project lead, Christopher Rea, with your ideas at chris.rea@ubc.ca.
A GLOBAL TEAM
Join the many contributors around the world who have helped to build and sustain the Chinese Film Classics Project – from high school students to college and graduate students to professional scholars to community members. Part-time, occasional, and advisory contributions are very welcome. Know of a student or colleague who might be interested? Recommend them!
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Besides helping to build a free public good, contributions to the Project are also excellent professional development activities. Training is integral to all collaborations, including transcriptions, translations, and other written contributions, which are rigorously peer-reviewed.
- Hone language abilities
- Learn project management skills
- Train in historical/cinematic research
- Acquire film production knowledge
- Experience the peer-review process
- Build a portfolio of your work (like Frank!)
All contributions are credited in Project materials, and translators retain copyright over their translations.
