Evolution of User-generated Translation

Abstract

Most conspicuous initially with Japanese anime fansubs, fan-based translation has been developing since the 1980s. In the advent of widespread availability of Web 2.0 platforms, fan translation has become a global phenomenon despite its dubious legal status. Extending the emerging interest in fansubs and scanlation in translation studies to the little discussed translation hacking by video game fans, this article brings readers‘ attention to participatory culture manifest in user-generated content in the field of translation and localisation. The article describes the evolution from unsolicited fan translation to solicited community translation now called crowdsourcing and considers them in the framework of user-generated translation (UGT). The article provides interdisciplinary perspectives, drawing on insights from media and game studies to address UGT which could profoundly impact the profession of translation and localisation as new technological environments unleash the technical competence, genre-knowledge and unparalleled devotion of the otherwise untrained Internet crowd as translators.