Dr. Simon Wong (D.Litt., Pretoria), formerly teaching in theological seminaries and Divinity School of Chinese University in Hong Kong, currently Global Translation Advisor at the United Bible Societies, has been involved in UBS translation work since 1990s. Simon is also responsible for Chinese localization of Paratext and Marble material.
Digitization of Bibles in (the Greater) China (1661-1960)
Abstract
Bibles published in China may be divided into three categories: Classical and Mandarin Chinese, dialects, and ethnic minority languages (including aboriginal languages in Taiwan). While the oldest Chinese Scriptures is traceable to the incomplete NT (1707) by French Jesuit Jean Basset and Johann Su, the oldest extant record in the Greater China may be dated back to Gravius’s translation of Matthew on the Sinkang aboriginal in Taiwan in 1661 (published in Netherland). The present paper reports on two major digitization efforts in the region of Greater China: Digitization of Old Chinese Bibles (prior to 1950s) and Digitization of Bibles in Chinese dialects and ethnic minorities (prior to 1950s). These two projects represent the most comprehensive and largest digitization effort on the Christian Bibles ever undertaken in the history of Bible translation in the region, with a coverage of more than 100 Bibles in 46 languages (Chinese, 22 dialects, 23 minority languages) from 1661 to end of the 1950s. The “Digitization of Old Chinese Bibles” is further complemented by a “Major Biblical Terms” mapping database between more than 6,800 terms in their source languages and their respective renderings in all 36 Chinese translations.