Chinese fans of Harry Potter would have to wait for months, before they would be able to get a decent translation of the latest adventures of their hero. Meanwhile, sloppy online translations and even fully fake Harry Potter books would hit the Chinese market, mostly over the internet. This time the last Harry Potter book was translated in two days time. In yWeekend (here in a translation by ESWN) Xiao Wang, a first year high-school student, explains how he tested and organized the 60 volunteer translators online, using their QQ-accounts.
Xiao Wang:
"There are about 20 high school students. They are mainly third-year high school students who are on summer vacation after taking the university entrance examinations. Among us, there are about seven or eight who have previously participated in translating Harry Potter books. For the majority, this was their first participation in a large-scale translation project.
Previously, they had only done some translations for practice during their spare time."
Xiao Wang is also the operator of a special Harry Potter section at Baidu, China's largest search engine, his position in the online network of Harry Potter fans. His translation might be the best, but is done without the permission of the official publisher of the Harry Potter books the People's Publishing House. Xiao Wang:
"Actually, I feel that we have very little impact on the official translation of the book. Genuine Harry Potter friends will always want to buy the official version, because the quality is better and they want to collect it. I had done a poll about how Harry Potter fans want to read Harry Potter 7. More than 100 persons participated, of which almost 70 want to buy the official Chinese-language translation. Only 2 persons said that they will only read the Internet translation."
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