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Transcreation in World of Warcraft’s China Localization: Echoes of Poetry across Two Worlds
Get PDFThe official trailer for the globally popular MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) World of Warcraft Patch 5.2: The Thunder King featured an original English poem, subsequently translated into 10 other languages. All versions retained a poetic form, with the one release in mainland China creatively borrowing the tetrasyllabic verse style akin to that used in Shijing, the first anthology of Chinese poetry. This unprecedented adaptation of a literary genre in the localization of a non-literary video game product blurred the conceptual boundary between Lawrence Venuti\u27s binary notions of foreignization and domestication in translation theory.
Viewed in light of Eugene Nida\u27s three-stage translation framework (analysis, transfer, restructuring) and Stuart Hall\u27s four-stage model of communication (production, circulation, consumption, reproduction), this case study demonstrates how the classical Chinese poetic form, mediated through the interactive video game platform, breaks free from its purely literary origins to become itself the medium in the sense of Marshall McLuhan’s seminal claim that “the medium is the message.”
That is, the poetic style itself, to a large extent, dictates how the content is conveyed and presented, embodying rich cultural connotations beyond the literal meaning of its content. This seamless integration of an ancient literary heritage into a modern multimedia environment represents a pioneering act of transcreation, artfully reinventing the source material while preserving its affective resonance for a new audience. As such, this perspective provides an innovative approach that contributes to the theorization of localization practice within Translation Studies
Land-use governance and Indigenous engagement in Arctic Alaska and Norway: successes, current gaps, and paths forward
Get PDFThis study aims to analyze the land use governance structures and the role of Indigenous engagement in Alaska and Norway using a comparative approach, with special focus on successful practices, current gaps, and paths forward to achieve equitable governance. Extractive land uses, such as oil and gas extraction and the construction of wind farms, have mixed impacts on Indigenous communities and lead to social and legal issues such as land use conflict and environmental injustice. Previous research has studied land use governance in Arctic countries with regard to Indigenous Peoples, yet there is a lack of literature that spans Alaska and Norway, a gap that this study aims to fill. To maximize comparability given different colonial histories and produce informative results that contribute to knowledge-sharing, this thesis focuses on Indigenous Peoples that still actively practice subsistence livelihoods: Iñupiats in the North Slope of Alaska and Sámi reindeer herders in Norway. To examine similarities and differences in the determinants, status quo, and opportunity areas of land use governance in Alaska and Norway, I conducted semi-structured interviews with Indigenous leaders, locals, and researchers followed by thematic analysis. Supplemental informal interviews as well as document and literature review add to the results. I found that land use governance structure is highly path-dependent, with governance in the North Slope being more Indigenous-driven, which better meets community interests. The structure of government institutions and policies in Norway is less conducive for Sámis to have the same degree of self-determination as seen in Alaska, but Sámis may work within the Norwegian structure to indigenize decision-making. Self-determination, Indigenous Knowledge, and relationship-building among stakeholders are crucial to successful and equitable land use governance, as decisions affecting Indigenous Peoples should be made with Indigenous Peoples who have been great stewards of their lands since time immemorial
The Impact of Maine’s Municipal Shellfish Management on Clam Harvester Motivation to Participate in Resource Conservation
Get PDFThis study investigates how the resource management strategies implemented by Maine’s different Municipal Shellfish Conservation Committees influences the motivation held by shellfish harvesters’ to participate in resource conservation activities. As soft shell clam landings are declining across Maine due to increasing predation and climate-related stress, there seems to be a disconnect in harvesters’ willingness to support the conservation activities that Shellfish Conservation Committees make available to them. In efforts to improve participation, town leadership in select regions have started to mandate the completion of annual conservation hours requirements. The diversity of policy approaches enacted by towns provides the unique opportunity to explore if these requirements are truly effective in maximizing harvester motivations to effectively participate in mudflat stewardship.
This research uses a mixed-methods approach, rooted in key informant interviews and a harvester survey, to evaluate how the imposition of conservation requirements and the composition of leadership on municipal shellfish committees influence the type and degree of motivation shellfish harvesters may show to participate in stewardship acts. Statistical analysis of the harvester survey suggests that the policy in towns with conservation requirements does not seem to diminish any existing, intrinsic motivations harvesters have to participate in conservation. Additionally, towns whose Shellfish Committees are made-up entirely of licensed harvesters were found to be positively correlated with harvester populations that express innate, intrinsic motivations to participate in conservation. These conclusions could be drawn upon in the future to advise plans for municipal-level shellfish management, as they provide support for the efficacy of requiring conservation hours and maximizing harvester participation on conservation committees
Workflow: Using A Python Script to Capture and Summarize Instagram Feeds at Rauner Special Collections
Get PDFThis public workflow contains a python script that will summarize and capture Instagram feeds. The script will capture the original digital assets and also create a PDF that summarizes and describes each post of the feed while capturing a digital image of the Instagram post. The python code will run in a Windows or MAC environment. Any archive may modify the script to suit their needs, provided that they have a code editor and python installed. This particular version of the script is designed to prepare uploads to Preservica using Preservica’s bulk incremental “opex” ingest – the files will then be synced to the Digital Objects tree of ArchivesSpace. The script is dependent upon the functionality of the publicly-available “Instaloader” python library
Geometric Multi-Resolution Analysis Across Signals, Images, And Networks
Get PDFThis research delves into the transformative potential of Geometric Multi-Resolution Analysis (GMRA) as a robust tool for dimensionality reduction and data analysis in the context of high-dimensional graphs. Statistical techniques for classification have historically been tailored for scenarios wherein the number of observations significantly exceeds the number of features, a paradigm characteristic of low-dimensional datasets. However, recent advancements in technologies have ushered in a transformative era in data collection practices across diverse domains, resulting in the acquisition of extensive feature measurements. As a result of this shift, datasets have transitioned into a high-dimensional realm wherein the number of features significantly exceeds the number of observations, rendering classical statistical techniques such as least squares ill-suited. Analyzing such high dimensional datasets presents challenges owing to the intricacies of the dataset complexity and the wealth of information encapsulated within each data point. GMRA offers a promising solution by identifying the intrinsic low-dimensional structure within high-dimensional data spaces. High-dimensional datasets often exhibit redundancy, where many individual features can be expressed through a combination of other features, thereby indicating an exploitable property suggesting that such high-dimensional datasets possess an intrinsic, underlying lower-dimensional structure [1]. This research aims to enhance the breadth and depth of the understanding and capabilities of the GMRA algorithm across datasets structured as graphs
Explosions of Cold War Memory: The Queer Overdetermination of U.S. Imperial Anxiety in The Ugly American
No full textIn 1958, William Lederer and Eugene Burdick were driven to spend six days frantically drafting a novel. In their view, the United States was losing the Cold War and the nation’s post-war image of innovation and benevolence was under threat. Lederer and Burdick feared that U.S. diplomacy was chauvinistic and detached and, as such, the United States was beginning to be associated with the very forms of imperialism it claimed to fight. This anxiety over U.S. imperialism gave rise to The Ugly American, in which Lederer and Burdick appear to attempt to alleviate imperial anxieties by providing an alternative image of an American abroad, one more in line with what they term the “American ethic” of hard work, humility, and sacrifice: the development worker. The book was an immediate success, selling millions of copies and inspiring the creation of the Peace Corps.
However, very quickly people began to use the term ‘ugly American’ not to refer to benevolent development workers but to describe arrogant and self-serving U.S. citizens living or traveling abroad, the very image, in other words, that Lederer and Burdick were trying to counter. In 2024, the pejorative trope of the ‘ugly American’ continues to frequent news headlines and common parlance, but the novel and its ‘positive’ usage of the term have fallen victim to a case of national amnesia. In a presidential election year, where the international image of the United States is forefront in many minds, this thesis considers how the memory of ‘the ugly American’ may unlock a key piece of the relationship between U.S. imperialism, imperial anxiety, and the self-representation of American identity.
Beginning by situating ‘the ugly American’ as a mythical signifier in Roland Barthes sense, this thesis considers the way in which the phrase’s origin evokes a primal scene of imperial anxiety, ultimately overdetermining the image of the ‘ugly American’ and providing generative ground to intervene in social memory processes around American mythology. Turning to these scenes of anxiety, this thesis argues that the bodies of the development workers in the novel emerge as sites of performative memory, where queer anxieties around the destabilization of identity deepen and problematize the initial imperial anxiety that drove Lederer and Burdick to write the novel
Through Too Western-Centric a Lens: Inadequate Consideration of the Chinese Perspective in US-China Policymaking After the Cold War
Get PDFFrom the end of the Cold War until 2016, the US Foreign Policy (FP) Establishment remained committed to a grand strategy of global hegemony. Four consecutive Presidential Administrations, Republican and Democrat alike, pursued America’s commitment to global leadership. They, in fact, created the opportunity and conditions in which the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC) has risen to become the United States’ most formidable strategic competitor, an aspiring, regional hegemon in the Pacific, and an “emerging potential superpower”[1].
China, throughout the same time, has risen to become the world’s 2nd largest economy and transformed its military – moving it closer to parity with US Forces in the Pacific.[2] In 2001, the PRC joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) and gained access, on favorable terms, to Western markets and foreign investment.[3] Contrary to the objectives of the US FP strategy of Engagement, China remains an illiberal, authoritarian regime and pursues increasingly aggressive foreign policy abroad. Most observers concede that the “liberal bet that China would integrate as a ‘responsible stakeholder’ into a US-led liberal order has failed.”[4]
This paper argues that the leading cause for the marked disparity between the US plan for its relations with China and how those relations have and continue to unfold is the US failure to adequately consider the Chinese perspective. The US FP Establishment, between the end of the Cold War and 2016, continued to view China through too “Western Centric” a lens.
The paper will review examples of the statements and actions, made over this period by leaders within the PRC. It will also review examples of the US FP Establishment analyses, efforts to develop, and decisions to implement US-China policy as a response to China’s statements and actions. The paper presents evidence that supports the claim that the US FP Establishment’s efforts – i.e., to diagnose as well as to develop prescriptive policy in response to China’s actions on the world stage – were undertaken without adequately considering the Chinese perspective. Examples reviewed include China’s increasingly tense, Cross-strait relations with Taiwan, China’s increasingly assertive behavior in the South and East China Seas, and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) modernization efforts.
Failure was manifest in the continued belief that increased economic liberalization would necessarily lead to increased political liberalization, China’s embrace of liberal ideals, and assimilation into a US-led Liberal International Order. It has not.
The paper contrasts the Western perspective with the perspective that drove China and their FP actions throughout this period. Specifically, it highlights the difference between the Western and Chinese perspectives on strategy, conflict, struggle, and war.
To present and begin to accurately understand the Chinese perspective, the paper looks to translations of official, Chinese government sources. To strengthen this paper’s conclusions made from a review of Chinese sources, the paper also looks to Western scholars who likewise relied heavily upon Chinese sources in their arguments. This brief exploration and consideration of China’s perspective indicates that the “liberal bet” (mentioned above) was never a well-informed one. China, as is unambiguously supported by solid evidence, has had a grand strategic plan that does not include remaining subordinated to a hegemonic America.
The final question seeks to understand how the US FP Establishment has gotten this so wrong. To answer, it examines a number of factors and conditions that have stood as obstacles to attaining a better, more accurate understanding of China’s actions on the world stage as well as to developing and implementing US-China policy that might have better served US interests.
This research is presented not simply as a critique of liberal-internationalist policy. It is intended to instigate acknowledgement of these obstacles as well as curiosity and acceptance of a perspective not America’s own. As US-China relations continue to develop, the US FP Establishment must more comprehensively understand and incorporate the Chinese perspective as well as China’s grand strategic intentions and objectives. If they fail, or choose not to try, the possibility for peaceful cooperation or collaboration will likely be increasingly displaced by an intensification of competition and conflict.
[1] Brooks and Wolforth, 2016, 43.
[2] Chhabra, 2019, 3.
[3] Gertler, 2004, 21-22.
[4] Ikenberry, 2020, 135
Thematic Synthesis: Rethinking Generative Music with Compositional Understanding in Game and Software Development
Get PDFGenerative music, first introduced by composers like Brian Eno and David Cope in the mid-to-late 20th century, has evolved through many stages, with diverse applications across music and technology companies as well as the game industry. However, despite this widespread interest, there remains a notable lack of the foundational understanding of composition and individual expressiveness in current generative systems that was apparent in the work of early composers. This paper advocates for a shift towards prioritizing compositional thought in system design to foster greater diversity and innovation within generative music. To demonstrate this approach, a novel system synthesizing two distinct musical pieces into a single cohesive composition was developed and evaluated. The system’s efficacy was evaluated through two user tests involving 35 participants. In the first test, participants listened to excerpts from various video game composers as well as music generated by combining different pieces. They rated the resulting compositions based on valence and energy, and then discussed their emotional and thematic qualities. In the second test, participants compared music clips generated by different models, including the system developed in this study, rating them on compositional quality. Results exhibit the system’s effectiveness in blending thematic material from its two inputs and producing compositions of comparable quality to existing models. The success of this system underscores the importance of reintegrating musical expression alongside technological advancements in contemporary generative music research and industry practices
Understanding Data through the Lens of Topology
Get PDFMachine learning depends on the ability to learn insightful representations from data. Topology of data offers a rich source of information for constructing such representations, yet its potential remains under-explored by the broader machine learning community. This work investigates the power of applied topology through two complementary projects: Topological Message Passing with Path Complexes and Persistent Homology for Anomaly Detection. In the first project, we extend the topological message passing framework by introducing a novel approach centered on path complexes, where paths form the fundamental building blocks. Our theoretical analysis demonstrates that this model generalizes existing topological deep learning and graph learning methods, while benefiting from established results on simplicial and regular cell complexes. Our findings are validated via rigorous experiments on both synthetic and real-world benchmarks. Our second project leverages persistent homology, a powerful tool for analyzing topological properties of data. We apply this technique to the challenging task of human activity anomaly detection, aiming to derive topologically-informed representations that enable the robust distinction between normal and anomalous activities within spatiotemporal data. Overall, this work highlights the potential of applied topology, acknowledges limitations, and positions itself to motivate promising future research directions within the field of topological deep learning