Julien Leyre (Founder, Marco Polo Project) outlines his attempt at addressing the demand for deeper understanding of China among people of European heritage by using the possibilities opened up by the internet.

The Marco Polo Project is a website that proposes to crowd-source the translation of Chinese writing into French, English and Spanish, bringing across contemporary voices from China to non-Mandarin readers. While doing so, the platform also gathers a community of readers and translators acting together as online mediators, training each other’s linguistic and cultural skills, and diffusing cultural intelligence through their own circles and networks.

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