A list of Chinese-English translation sites
Below is a list of sites that translate Chinese media and online opinion. It’s inevitably incomplete, so please suggest additions in the comments section:
Chinascope: Very low-key but constantly provides material not found on the English internet.
China Analysis: Smart issue briefs based on Chinese sources, produced by the from the European Council on Foreign Relations. Download their excellent collection of essays by leading Chinese thinkers, China 3.0.
China Brief: the Jamestown Foundation’s fortnightly journal of 4-5 analytical essays based on Chinese sources.
China Copyright & Media: an incredible compendium of translated official documents related to politics and ideology, both past and present.
China Media Project: David Bandurski at Hong Kong University provides a regular stream of the most important issues in the Chinese official media.
Global Voices China: Part of a world-wide network focusing on human rights, rule of law and social justice issues.
ChinaSMACK: Trawls the forums and bulletin boards, often scraping the bottom of China’s barrel. Has an absolutely invaluable glossary.
China Digital Times: China-related hard news from the English and Chinese internet, with some original translations. Especially useful is the Ministry of Truth section, which translates leaked Propaganda Ministry edicts. CDT’s Grass Mud Horse Lexicon is probably the most up-to-date and comprehensive Chinese internet glossary.
China Dialogue 中外对话: Fully bilingual environmental news portal edited by respected journalist Isabel Hilton.
The China Story: An indispensable repository of information on Chinese thought, politics and culture, from the Australian Centre on China in the World.
Tea Leaf Nation: US-based China news site with a focus on China’s social media. Now a channel at Foreign Policy.
Marco Polo Project: A broad, user-driven array of writings from the Chinese internet.
Danwei: Translations of front pages of Chinese newspapers, and weekly roundups of interesting writings. The Danwei archives are a treasure trove.
ChinaHush: Entertaining and shocking stories from the Chinese internet.
An Optimist’s Guide to China: Translations of important official Chinese media articles by a talented American journalist.
Offbeat China: Online buzz, fun stories and insights from the Chinese internet. [On hiatus since January 2015]
ChinaGeeks: Translates in-depth articles and blog posts, and provides intelligent commentary, especially on internet-opinion related issues. [On hiatus since Feb 2013, but archives are full of great stuff]
ESWN: The original Chinese-English translations blog. Layout takes a bit of getting used to, but worth the effort. [More sporadic these days, but always worth reading, and the archives are a goldmine]
Ministry of Tofu: Established in October 2010 with the aim of boosting understanding between China and the rest of the world through translation. Run by Chinese journalist Jing Gao. [On hiatus since October 2013]
Please add any other suggestions in the comments section.
southseaconversations 讨论南海 
chinadialogue (www.chinadialogue.net) is fully bilingual. It publishes a lot of original material — news, analysis and opinion on the environment — but also publishes many translations from the Chinese media on environmental topics, mostly from Caixin and newspapers in the Southern Group.
Thanks Sam, CD is a superb resource and you guys are doing great work.
Just an idea/suggestion – perhaps the CD main page could be tweaked to display only one language at a time, whilst of course still emphasising that the English and Chinese versions are exactly the same, with shared comment threads. That might make for a slightly less “busy” layout.
I send a bilingual newsletter out each week for the Australia-China Youth Association at my uni, and people appreciate it but some have mentioned that having the second language on display makes it look a bit overwhelming. I don’t have the technical expertise to solve the problem, but that’s where my suggestion comes from.
Hi there, I wanted to suggest a site I’m running with a small team in Melbourne – the Marco Polo Project (http://marcopoloproject.org) – we crowdsource translation of Chinese writing – most of it from websites my1510.cn and bulloger.com. Also post a weekly digest on danwei.com.
If anyone wants to practice translation – you can just register, and start translating material from our database. A fun way to practice.
If you’ve got any question or suggestions, please drop me a line at info@marcopoloproject.org – we’re still quite new, and there’s surely a lot we can improve.
Cheers!
Hi Julien, the Marco Polo Project looks great. I will encourage my fellow China-watchers to contribute, and you guys are welcome to syndicate content from here if you wish.
Do you know, or know of, a translator by the name of Carl Gene Fordham? I seem to remember he’s in Melbourne, and while i can’t say whether he’d be interested to be a contributor, he would at least be interested to know about the project.
Hope these sites are really good and help in Chinese to English translation for my documents and files as Google translate doesn’t help me properly and giving errors.
Some of these websites are really good. Thank you!
These links are very helpful. Glad you’ve shared it.
Hello Andrew,
really a neat blog. I would suggest you consider China Analysis as an addition to your list of Chinese translation sites. Well, it’s not a website, and it’s not even a straight translation, but we provide close textual analysis of Chinese language texts (from think tanks, journals, occasionally general media) with themed issues, and we have been doing it in Europe – a rarity – for a decade at least. It’s available on the ECFR website – easiest way to find issues is to type in: http://www.ecfr.eu/publications/C235
Hello Professor,
Has been some years since i updated this page, so long overdue. You and the team at ECFR do great work, and of course I’ll add CA. Didn’t realise you had a podcast too – I’ll be subscribing as soon as I have functioning mobile device again.
Thank you for stopping by.
Hi !
I’m doing my master thesis on the Conflict in South China Sea, and I would like to ask you if you have any books to recommand about it, I’m especially looking for books trasnlated in english or written by a Chinese author to be able to have another point of view ?
Kinds regards,
Hi Nadine, for book-length chinese perspective in English I’d recommend checking out books by Wu Shicun, or Zou keyuan, or Hong Nong. There are also a great many journal articles by Chinese authors on all aspects of the topic.
Best wishes,
Andrew