Where can I get Chinese-language webpages translated (well) to english?

June 1, 2005 3:19 PM

Like many others, I am watching the outbreak of bird flu in western China with great apprehension. Where can I get reliable translation of a Chinese-language webpage to english?

Short recap: All the experts agree that we're overdue for an influenza pandemic. Most scientists agree that a pandemic influenza strain will likely evolve from influenza strains currently circulating in birds. Already, the H5N1 strain of avian influenza ("bird flu") has killed over 50 people in southeast Asia since 2003. Experts are worried that the virus will mutate and acquire the ability to be efficiently transmitted from human to human. Many are concerned that a recent outbreak of bird flu amongst migratory geese in western China signals the start of a flu pandemic.

The situation: Chinese officials and state-run media have insisted that internet reports of many human infections and deaths in the same area as the geese outbreak are false. The reports are here, on the boxun.com website. They are written in Chinese; machine translators (google and babelfish) offer bad but tantalizing translations.

Finally getting to the question: Where can I find a real-live human being who would translate these (and four or five more) pages? They don't have to be verbatim, just the salient points. Are there offshore organisation devoted to press freedom in China that do these sorts of things? NGOs? Activists? Journalists? Maybe even MeFites? (Alas, my first obvious source -- my local university -- is out for the season.)

Thanks!

posted by docgonzo to society & culture (4 comments total)

Adsotrans does a really good job of translating Chinese news articles. It's what drives News In Chinese, which allows readers to add new annotations and definitions to the database. Not sure if they're based off of the same database, but the page I linked does have a translation option which you might like to try.
posted by Big Fat Tycoon at 4:46 PM on June 1, 2005

Tangentially related, but a fellow MeFite has started up a blog to follow news about emerging infectious diseases, and is currently focusing exclusively on H5N1. The site is EPIDEMIca, and it might at least provide some interesting reading while you track the issue.
posted by SemiSophos at 5:49 PM on June 1, 2005

Um, Epidemi.ca is linked to in the original question.
posted by Justinian at 6:33 PM on June 1, 2005

Um, Epidemi.ca is linked to in the original question.

Not only was it linked, but epidemi.ca is docgonzo's own site (hence the link under the "I" in the post).
posted by pardonyou? at 8:08 PM on June 1, 2005