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“Jian Ye Building” and “Soviet War Crimes Against POWs During World War II” Recently, I participated in translating two Wikipedia articles: Kian Yap Building and Soviet War Crimes Against Prisoners of War During World War II. This experience not only improved my language skills, but also deepened my understanding of architecture, history, and the complexities of cross-cultural communication. 1.  Kian Yap Building : A City’s Memory Encapsulated in Architecture While translating the Kian Yap Building article, I gained insight into the story behind this historical structure located in Guangzhou, China. The article included many architectural terms and references to local history, such as the development of the city during the Republic of China era and the building’s stylistic features. This made me realize that translation is not just about converting words from one language to another—it’s about conveying culture and context. The building represents more than just a ...

  This semester, we took a deeper look into the platform of Wikipedia. To be honest, I had always seen it as just a convenient tool for looking things up or quickly gathering background information for assignments. I never really thought about how it actually works. But through this course, I started to seriously examine what’s behind Wikipedia—where its content comes from, who writes it, how neutrality and accuracy are maintained, and how it manages to update information so quickly when something new happens. What surprised me the most was learning that Wikipedia isn’t written by experts for the general public—it’s a platform that anyone can edit and contribute to. That kind of openness sounds risky at first, but I learned that it’s actually governed by a fairly strict set of rules, like requiring reliable sources, avoiding personal opinions, and maintaining a neutral point of view. These guidelines help ensure the overall quality of the articles. One thing that really stood out t...