Intrepid journalists such as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame long have set the standard for great reporting. Superb writers such as Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Maureen Dowd or tough editors like Robert C. Maynard and Robert Montemayor similarly represent the quintessence of journalistic storytelling excellence. And until recently, to note that all of these journalists are human beings would have been stating the obvious, if not even laughable. In the 21st century, however, the assumption that journalists must be human beings, and no more than human, might no longer hold, and to accept that premise could be increasingly dubious. Few would be laughing about it … although many might be justifiably concerned about journalistic quality in an AI-infused future news ecosystem. Whether a digital hybrid that blends the human and AI can yield a great journalist, or great journalism, is a question this chapter considers.

Before the invention of the computer and the advent of the Internet, it is unlikely anyone could have envisioned journalism without human reporters, writers, and editors. But in the 21st century, digital journalists in the form of news bots and algorithms are increasingly working alongside, in support of, and in some cases possibly in place of human journalists. Although human journalists will likely play a key role in the Metaverse, digital journalists, or journalists in all-digital form or in close concert with their human counterparts, likely will become increasingly common and vital to the Metaverse news industry, for profit or not. News avatars that blend human critical thinking, perhaps the most fundamental skill of any human journalist, with the most well-designed AI are on the event horizon of the Metaverse.

In the Metaverse, people generally exist in the form of digital avatars. Such avatars are the digital representation of a person, a character, inside a computer environment, or a virtual world including the Metaverse. As such, an avatar in cyberspace is in essence a digital twin of a real-world person. The term avatar is Hindu in origin and is the incarnation of a Hindu deity (Lochtefeld, 2002).

This book is an eclectic discussion of a handful of translation theories and their potential impact on practising literary translators. In the foregoing sections, I explored a range of theoretical ideas, mostly from literary studies or translation studies, but with clear links to other fields, such as cultural studies and philosophy. I looked at definitions; some of the large concepts in translation studies are often treated as dichotomous, namely fidelity, equivalence, distance and (in)visibility; identity; power and ethics.

Another work on translation theory could have progressed chronologically through different views or might have focused on a particular culture, issue or theorist, but the topics included here were those that happened to appeal to me at this specific point in my own life and in the life of our world. It strikes me that as we are faced with evermore urgent challenges – pandemics, climate change, wars, constrictions on particular societal groups’ movements or rights – communication is incredibly important. How we engage with one another and the ideas and feelings we share could lay the foundation for fewer – or, unfortunately, additional – problems in the future. So I believe there is a strong need to think about what we are doing when we translate and to consider how our work affects us, the people around us and the planet. Personally, I try to do that when I translate – such as by choosing only to work on books I believe in, insisting on my own visibility as a translator, or talking through changes with authors/editors with an aim to be ethical in my choices – but of course I am human, and make mistakes, and am confined by my living and working conditions.

In the introduction, I wrote about the view that theory cannot be ‘applied’ to practice. While I am not advocating just applying any of the ideas in this book to your work or promoting allegiance to any one approach and I would stress that a translator always has to look at an individual text as a singular case, I would argue that we do not need to see theory and practice as being in opposition. They can and should inform one another and ideally practising translators would produce theories while theorists would also be translators.

Global Connections and the Digital

The year 2019 was one of global unrest, from the gilets jaunes in France to the Anti-Extradition Law protests in Hong Kong, the October Revolution in Lebanon and a major revolt in Chile that launched a new constitutional process. All these movements responded to their own set of underlying conditions that cannot always be related to each other. However, they were also characterized by the ubiquitous presence of smartphones and the use of social media to share information and opinions, organize people, mobilize resources and inspire various forms of struggle. The last revolution in Lebanon in 2019, a massive mobilization of youth every night in the central square, and the occupation for several days of the Martyrs’ Square, was embodied by smartphone and online applications that enabled its extension (The Atlantic 2019; Sinno 2020; al-Rammal 2022). Every evening, the Lebanese diaspora from all over the world, thanks to smartphones and digital applications, delivered meals to the demonstrators occupying the square. This transnational, cross-border solidarity allowed the movement to take root and become visible, creating the conditions for its endurance. When the protests in Chile started in October 2019, all social media channels in the country were flooded with images of protesters facing the police on the streets (Scherman and Rivera 2021). At some point, images and coverage of the protests in Hong Kong from earlier in the year started to circulate, and with them depictions of tactics and organization (Rachman et al. 2019). In Hong Kong, protesters had clear roles, from brave frontliners with helmets, face covers and makeshift shields to medical students acting as paramedics and volunteers managing logistics, security and public information via Telegram, Facebook and Twitter (Hernandez and Scarr 2019). Moreover, the protesters in Hong Kong had already devised tactics to confront the police, for example, by using laser pointers and umbrellas to reduce visibility and the recording of protesters. Soon afterwards, similar tactics were being used by Chilean protesters (Cole 2019). Unlike in the revolutions of the twentieth century, there were no professional revolutionaries travelling the world offering their teachings. In the compressed social time of the twenty-first century, as the contributions in this book show, online and offline are two faces of the same coin, and communication happens in a more immediate, extensive and multifaceted way.

In the title of his 1958 travel book The Marches of El Dorado, Michael Swan places himself in a long tradition of intrepid adventurers to the South American continent. No longer in search of gold – El Dorado once referred to the mythical gilded king or the place of gold – Swan nevertheless conjures the spirit of Sir Walter Raleigh to point up the ambition of his own journey. No doubt his publisher, Jonathan Cape, also wanted to entice the reading public with the promise of new riches: a journey into the remote interior of British Guiana at a time when Britain was losing its Empire and dealing with race riots at home. But for all its nod to a romantic past and adventurous present, Swan's narrative (much like Raleigh's before him) is fraught with tension. Ideologically limited and almost wilfully ethnocentric, his ‘marches’ across the country read like an elegy for the colonial mind, a lament that is also sometimes lamentable. Yet the landscape he is traversing (walking, climbing and paddling) is notoriously dense, knotty and unfamiliar. The effort of slow travel this enforces, the focus on the proximate and nearby, the sheer physical contact of the body with the land, produces moments of sensitivity and knowledge that the reader can share, despite the author's framing in terms of a Grand Tour of the rainforest. We do not know how far Swan's experience of microtravel changed him. The material in his appendices and his ‘Note on the Carib Language’ suggest knowledge that is the product of staying still rather than moving to the next destination. We do know that in the genuine acts of deceleration the interior imposed, in the multisensory descriptions of rivers and mountains, even in the gaps and silences of Swan's misrecognition and miscommunication, the Guyanese writer Wilson Harris found multiple sources of inspiration.

Reading Swan's text in London in the mid-1960s, Harris was reminded of his own expeditions into the Guyanese interior as a government surveyor (1942–57), of the people he met there and of the spatial and kinetic shifts that influenced his method as a writer. Having moved to England permanently in 1959, Harris published four novels (1960–63) that were later collected as The Guyana Quartet (1985), and in a note to that edition, he explains how insights gleaned from Swan helped him to re-read or ‘validate’ this earlier fiction.

‘I’m sorry, Mum. My journey abroad hasn't succeeded’ was the last message Pham Thi Tra My sent on 23 October 2019 to her mother via LINE, a few moments before losing her life together with other 38 Vietnamese migrants inside a container en route to the United Kingdom. Falling prey to human trafficking, Pham was travelling from Vietnam to the United Kingdom through China, France and Belgium (Irish Independent 2019; Gavard-Suaire 2020). Yet, lacking signals inside a container when entering the United Kingdom from Belgium, that message remained unsent. The inhumanity suffered by Pham and her fellow migrants tragically brings us to the reality that connectivity enabled by smartphones may be a promise lost to the reality of a physical world that disconnects home and abroad.

Growing Digital Connectivity

Digital connectivity has become part and parcel of migrants’ daily experiences. Moving beyond a traditional push-pull approach, which portrays migrants as economic agents seeking opportunities and betterment in the society of arrival, transnationalism offers a different analytical framework for migration studies (Glick Schiller et al. 1992; Vertovec 2009). It overcomes the long-lasting dichotomy between societies of departure and arrival by showing how transnational spaces are connected and interlinked socially, economically or culturally (Levitt 2001). A latest input to its theoretical pertinence is the significantly improved digital connectivity enabled by using social media platforms downloaded onto smartphones. In tandem with this ongoing digital transformation of migrants’ everyday life and their social, economic and cultural practices, scholarship about digital connectivity has developed at a strong rhythm over the last decade. Migrants use their online platforms for socialization and interaction, which affect their familial relations and affections, intimacy, gender identity, sexual practices and sense of belonging (Cassidy and Wang 2018; Chan 2021; Madianou 2016). Online platforms are also used for networking and community building, financial transactions, commerce and entrepreneurship (Martin 2017; Zani 2019, 2020), as well as activism and mobilization. Dana Diminescu's seminal work on the ‘connected migrant’ (2008) and Sandra Ponzanesi's important scholarship about migrant digital connectivity (2019) and digital diasporas (2020) illustrate this nexus between migration and digitality. Their works have guided this growing field, which is characterized by a new encounter, or even an overlap, between migration and media studies.

Dimitris Tsaloumas is one of the first Greek Australian poets who identifies as a translingual writer, given the fluent way he translated his and other poets’ works from English to Greek and back the other way. When he merges urban and rustic landscapes and images that seem foreign but also are familiar, he disorientates his readers and leaves them confused as to where Tsaloumas, the poet, is located. The subtle irony that accompanies his lyrical, elegiac tone evokes someone who identifies as a disillusioned exile. He shows in his earlier poems that he longs for his past island home in the Aegean Sea, while in his later ones he shows how he feels trapped in his present reality. ‘The Trap’, one of the final poems in his collection New and Used Poems, verifies such an observation. It reads like the final confession of a deflated warrior coming to terms with his diminishing vitality when he concedes, ‘We’ve lost through visibility’. For him, there is nowhere to hide, as everything is now exposed through his written admission, ‘I’m only passing through […] There's no exit, you’ve known all along […] Your struggle is with the unseen, the beast that never yields’. It is as if he has always known that he belongs nowhere, but is the eternal migrant aware of life's transience, but also someone who valiantly faces ‘the beast’ of his own demons. The conversational, sardonic tone he uses identifies him as a bard, but by including the image of the ancient gladiator, which is an iconic symbol of heroic endeavour, he locates himself as the outspoken visionary who sought fame in his early days but, in his wiser years, has relinquished his dreams and come to terms with his limitations.

Despite such pessimistic reflections on his own life, he remains a keen observer of the everyday, recreating its sounds and describing his interactions with nature and sentient beings. Often, he addresses an elusive ‘you’ in the second person, which may be a living being or a departed soul, and other times he speaks to himself.

Dorothy Wordsworth's travel writing features her fascination with garden design and horticulture, an aspect that forms temporal and geographical connections between home and away. Drawing on Heidegger's notion, in Wordsworth's travel writing, the garden is a repository, both a literal and figurative ‘dwelling place’, which speaks across temporal, spatial and geographical distances. This chapter focuses on Wordsworth's specific reference to the ‘fairy garden’ in her travel writing, a trope that brings together two key perspectives in nature writing of the period, the miniature and the panoramic.

Detailing a visit to the shore of Loch Lomond on 24 August 1803 during her tour of Scotland accompanied by her brother William and friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Dorothy Wordsworth writes,

This description from Wordsworth's Recollections of a Tour of Scotland encompasses a number of key factors in Wordsworth's remarkable representation of the idea of the garden, its relationship to nature more generally and its connection with travel. First of all, this Scottish scene evokes for Wordsworth a memory of the landscape of home, Rydal Water, nearby Windermere and looking more closely, the place is imagined as a garden. There is an emphasis on the diminutive, a ‘small island’ is bordered by a ‘little oblong lake’ and the larger natural scene is shrunk into a frame into which a domestic garden could be envisaged. A connection between nature and dwelling is established – this is a place ‘to live’. There is a spot for a shed or a site that is attached, by the actions and emotions of a person living nearby, to their house and an exchange emerges between the domestic and wild, home and away.

This chapter adopts a practical approach, focusing on the effective management of risks in the “new era” for businesses operating in China. The ever-evolving larger environment has led to a significant transformation in the nature of risks faced by companies in China over the past decade. Unfortunately, many foreign companies are not adequately prepared to address these emerging risks, which puts them at risk of encountering unforeseen challenges. Since China's declaration of entering a new era in 2017, char-acterized by consumption-led growth, innovation, territorial integrity, and a proactive role in addressing global challenges, the ramifications of this shift have had an impact on foreign companies operating in the country. Among the various risks that have emerged, three particularly challenging ones are heightened national pride, economic nationalism, and sporadic antiforeign sentiments. As China experiences a surge in national pride and a growing sense of economic nationalism, foreign companies must navigate a more complex and sensitive operating environment. The rise of consumer nationalism, triggered by patriotic sentiments and a desire to support domestic businesses and products, has created unique challenges for foreign brands. Moreover, occasional antiforeign sentiments arising from territorial disputes, historical tensions, or controversies can further complicate the business landscape.

This chapter provides a comprehensive risk management discussion while placing specific emphasis on examining significant instances of consumer nationalism in China over the past five years. It aims to offer practical strategies that could have been implemented by companies to effectively manage such risks. To assess companies’ resilience levels, a scale is proposed based on Shimp and Sharma's Consumer Ethnocentrism Tendencies Scale (CETSCALE) and the Consumer Ethnocentrism Extended Scale (CEESCALE). By analyzing major consumer nationalist actions in China, this chapter sheds light on the specific challenges that foreign companies have faced in this evolving landscape. It explores instances where consumer ethnocentrism has influenced consumer behavior and preferences, leading to shifts in brand perception and consumption patterns. Understanding the underlying factors that contribute to consumer nationalism is crucial in formulating effective risk management strategies. Drawing on the insights provided by Shimp and Sharma's CETSCALE and CEESCALE, this chapter proposes a resilience assessment scale. This scale aims to measure companies’ ability to navigate and withstand the challenges posed by consumer nationalism.

In Qu’est-ce que la littérature, Sartre argues that literature is neither an exercise in pure aesthetics nor a mere reflection of pre-existing conditions but always an intentional act directed toward a specific audience. He challenges the writer to take responsibility for both the act and the audience to which it is addressed. In this way, he proposes that we produce a littérature that is both engagée and existentially authentic. His position is more nuanced than has often been recognized. He does not call for a mere “Literature of Ideas,” in Nabokov's dismissive phrase, nor does he demand the production of endless romans à thèse as is often alleged (Contat and Idt 1981: x). Rather, for Sartre, the author simultaneously creates and unveils an object (1948: 55) that in turn constitutes an invitation to the reader to participate in, and make possible, this unique moment of unveiling. “Écrire, c’est faire appel au lecteur pour qu’il fasse passer à l’existence objective le dévoilement que j’ai entrepris par le moyen du langage” [“To write is to make an appeal to the reader that he make enter into objective existence the act of unveiling that I have undertaken by the means of language”] (1948: 59). The literary moment is not that of simple communication in which a pre-existing message is passed from one speaker to another, nor that of free play in which a fundamentally nonideological, floating world is created. It is rather a moment of creation between author, reader, and text in which a fundamentally new object is called into existence through an act of profoundly situated and yet transcendent unveiling: transcendent precisely in so far as the act of unveiling does not exhaust itself in the moment (1948: 74–75).

Engagement, then, is not something willed or refused, it is a fact of the authentic creative act. In calling into being an object that is fundamentally new, the literary work has changed the world from what it was prior to the conjoined acts of creation and reception that constitute it. This is true as much for mimetic forms as for more formalist ventures, since there is no attempt to present an image of the world through language that is not also the creation of a parallel world (1948: 29), or a world of difference.

Appendix: Overview of Major Works

This chapter aims to provide readers with a comprehensive historical context surrounding the phenomenon of Chinese consumers’ nationalism, shedding light on the distinct characteristics exhibited by each wave throughout time. By delving into pivotal moments, such as the renowned narrative of “The Shop of the Lin Family,” which vividly portrays the eruption of nationalistic consumer boycotts in China back in 1932, to the more recent events like the fervent public backlash against South Korea and its impact on Lotte Mart in Beijing's Wangjing district in 2017, this chapter offers a captivating journey through the evolution of consumer nationalism in the country.

Within the pages of this chapter, readers will find answers to pressing questions regarding the transformations witnessed in Chinese consumer nationalism in recent years. By examining the changing dynamics, it seeks to unravel the multifaceted nature of this phenomenon and explore the various factors that have contributed to its evolution. Specifically, the chapter endeavors to shed light on the role played by the government and state media in each wave, deciphering their influence and exploring their motivations. This chapter also contemplates the ramifications that may arise from the emergence of a new wave of consumer nationalism. By drawing upon historical insights and analyzing current trends, it endeavors to provide a forward-looking perspective on the potential consequences of this evolving phenomenon. As society navigates through this new wave, it becomes increasingly crucial to understand the implications it may have on various aspects, including politics, economics, and social cohesion.

Ultimately, this chapter serves as an invaluable resource for readers seeking to grasp the intricate tapestry of Chinese consumers’ nationalism through-out history. By examining each wave's characteristics, unraveling the role of government and state media, and anticipating the potential outcomes of a burgeoning new wave, it invites readers to engage critically with this complex and ever-evolving aspect of Chinese society.

History of Chinese Consumers’ Nationalism

Consumer nationalism emerged as a recurring theme in the dynamic relationship between China and the Western world, gaining notable prominence during the late nineteenth century and reaching its zenith between the 1900s and the 1940s. Throughout this period, several pivotal instances of consumer nationalist movements unfolded, leaving a lasting impact on Sino-Western relations.

Introduction

From upper elementary school through middle and secondary school, deficits in comprehension and vocabulary impede students’ progress more than in lower elementary school. Students with deficits in these areas cannot keep up with the volume of information. Comprehension and vocabulary are basic building blocks for understanding the English language. Teachers have little time to improve these skills and the content to be taught. Verbal expression and memory deficits exacerbate the problems. It is difficult to speak and/or write about these abilities independently because they are intricately intertwined. One cannot speak of meaningful writing without acknowledging that vocabulary and memory for facts and incidentals are pertinent to thought processes involved with writing.

Comprehension and vocabulary go together in a combined fashion for these students. Research emphasizes the powerful, lasting effects of vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension (Cunningham & Stanovich 1997). Reading fluency will not get a student anywhere if word meaning is unknown. Comprehension depends on an accurate understanding of word meanings and the ability to infer meaning from unknown words (Roberts et al. 2008).

Other abilities are involved with written expression such as spelling, punctuation, and grammar, that impact writing and are treated in other chapters. The Language Experience Approach (LEA) is foundational to the student's instruction, assessment, and growth in these areas. It is a culminating activity for assessment and an instructional activity as these abilities are developed.

Comprehension

Some students may have slight, central auditory processing problems and were unsuccessful in a phonic-based program. Comorbid sensory integration problems or other deficit may hinder success in learning to read. Students who are not experiencing failure in other classes, may not be noticed or chosen for evaluation. Other reasons that students may not succeed in reading are emotional distress, moving often, or other events.

Multiple exposure/multiple context strategy

Little research is available on low-level readers for comprehension development. Most literature addresses strengthening comprehension for grade-level readers who are not strong in comprehension. Two older studies investigated the multiple exposure/ multiple context (ME/MC) strategy (McCormick 1994).

Historical Moments in English Language Learners’ Research

In the United States, research on English language learners (ELLs) has increased substantially since the turn of the century, including research on language and literacy development, instructional interventions, and educational assessments (Santi et al. 2019). A substantial body of research on ELLs has been published since the report of the National Literacy Panel (August et al. 2009). However, concerning the issue of ELL students with disabilities and the challenge of identification, little data has been collected. Historically, ELLs were overlooked for disability services due to the belief that their achievement difficulties are grounded in language proficiency issues that will be resolved with time, or they may be overrepresented because of inaccurate measures and/or poor identification procedures (Abedi 2006; Artiles et al. 2005). According to Santi et al. (2019), ELLs are at risk for impaired reading and language development for reasons other than the existence of disabilities, including socioeconomic disadvantage and poor instruction in one or both languages. Morgan et al. (2015) found that racial, ethnic, and language minority elementary and middle school students are less likely than similar white, English-monolingual students to be identified as having disabilities and are disproportionately underrepresented in special education. This study also reported that language-minority children were less likely to be identified with a learning disorder or language impairments.

Throughout the history of teaching English as a second language (ESL), instructors required that learners learn the language through memorization and repetition of the second language (L2) structures without exposing them to real-life situations that created another challenge for learners. These practices were unsuccessful in promoting ELLs’ capacity when communicating in different situations using the target language. Thus, incorporating new trends in English language teaching (ELT) through integrating meaningful materials and authentic tasks that represent real-world situations encourages the competencies of ELLs to transfer the language they are learning to situations beyond the classroom.

Research into applied linguistics and second language acquisition has also played an essential role in constructing and modifying different approaches and methods for ELT for the purpose of guiding ELLs to communicate effectively (Celce-Murcia 2001). Raising English language teachers’ awareness of how these approaches, methods, and strategies have evolved facilitates their ability to make well-informed teaching decisions.