Universities Cut Translation, Then Need Humans to Read the Catalog

As several Chinese universities shortened their humanities and translation programs, one revised course catalog arrived with its replacement classes generated in two days. The titles did not match the registrar’s approved list: Translation Practice became Practice of Moving Meaning, while Modern Chinese Literature became Recent Written Chinese.

On registration day, students could attend the new classes, pass them and receive no credits. The degree audit recognized the old titles only. One fourth-year student’s transcript showed 118 recognized credits and 14 entries marked unrecognized learning, leaving her two credits short of graduation despite having completed the work.

The remaining human layer

The university moved its remaining translation lecturers from their closed classrooms to a table in the library entrance. Students brought syllabi and transcripts; the lecturers compared the Chinese originals, drew arrows between equivalent course names and stamped forms with same meaning. The stamp was rejected because same meaning was not itself an approved course title.

We were told the machine could do the beginner work. Now the beginners bring it to us.

A former translation lecturer

By Friday, faculty were sending their own course titles to the library before submitting them for approval. The system accepted Philosophy of Science, rejected Science of Thinking, and returned Thinking About Science for human review. The student with 118 credits was given a final form listing her missing requirement as two credits of interpretation. She carried it to the queue, where the lecturers tied a red thread between her completed classes and the degree she was not yet allowed to receive.