China-U.S. Relations

A Laowai's perspective

chinaSMACK! (Peace Corps and the 3rd Goal)


The 3rd goal of Peace Corps is to help Americans better understand the people where I served: China. While China is a vast country with lots of diversity, there is a website that can give people some ideas about Chinese thinking on various topics.

chinaSMACK ( mines a wide range of topics in the Chinese media, which are then translated into English and offered up for discussion (yes, you too can post your opinion about the various issues on their site). Many of the topics are somewhat controversial.

Recently I got a chance to email Fauna, the lead translator for chinaSMACK. Fauna agreed to answer some questions I had about the site. The email interview is included below:

d: Your goal is to help foreigners better understand Chinese people, society, culture, etc. Do you think translation is the best way to do this?

F: I think it is one way to do this because it allows foreigners to understand what real Chinese people are saying in Chinese. Chinese people often say different things if they are talking to foreigners instead of other Chinese. In fact, I think many people do this and not only Chinese. Of course, translation of some peoples’ comments cannot represent all people’s comments.

d: But you believe chinaSMACK offers a good representation of Chinese society? How old are your readers?

F: I cannot say chinaSMACK offers a “good representation” of Chinese society. I think it offers a “different” representation compared to what I think most foreigners read about Chinese society. If they can read chinaSMACK and their normal foreign news articles, I only hope this will help them understand that Chinese society is not so different from other societies in most respects.

I am not sure how old my readers are. This is the only guide I have, but it is not perfect.

d: Aren’t there limitations on the extent off understanding translations provide? Western and eastern cultures are ripe for misunderstanding one another.

F: Of course. I am not a native English speaker so my translations are not perfect. When it is possible, I will try to explain the Chinese I think is difficult to understand in English, such as idioms or slang. Chinese and foreigners have different background and life experiences. This is normal. However, I think most Chinese and foreigners feel happy, sad, angry, etc. about the same things most of the time.

d: What has been the most rewarding aspect of your job?

F: When I read a comment or email from a reader and it shows me that they have a better understanding and respect for Chinese people and China. There are many problems and bad people in China, but I just hope more people can understand that most people are normal and good people just like themselves. There are many negative stories on chinaSMACK, but I think the comments and feelings of the Chinese people are usually very much like other people in similar situations. If we can see this, we can treat each other more equal.

d: Are there any future plans for chinaSMACK?

F: I hope to continue developing chinaSMACK to a bigger and bigger website. It should always allow foreigners who are interested in China and Chinese people to see more social aspect of China, about the topics that Chinese people talk about everyday. I hope to hire some permanent contributors so we can have more content.

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Dustin Ooley

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