Wikidata Taiwan 13th Birthday: Taiwan Special Event Recap PART 2

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Saturday, October 25, 2025

Wikidata Taiwan held the second Special Event to celebrate the 13th birthday of Wikidata at Rest Book and Bed in Puli, Nantou, a cozy space known for its peaceful atmosphere and authentic, delicious German sausages. This event was dedicated to our collaboration with the Seediq communities on translating the OCLC White Paper on Wikibase into indigenous languages.

The translation is part of a broader effort to improve the documentation landscape in Taiwan. Having already completed a full translation of the white paper, we decided to take the initiative further by involving indigenous communities to join the journey. We invited members from the three branches of the Seediq people to translate the community summary of the OCLC White Paper into their respective languages, making the content accessible to their communities in their own words.

This event served not only as a platform to share the translation results and experiences but also as a celebration of how we have collectively expanded the boundaries of our languages a little bit further. Since the material touched on specialized topics and is full of words that exceed everyday language, such presentational event is also a great channel to allow the new words to flow into the community through face-to-face discussion and conversation, and enrich the language through meaningful interactions. During the session, many insightful observations were also raised, among them, the challenge of lexical gaps showed up again and again, a common issue where a word simply does not exist in the target language. Yet, this very challenge, also a blessing in disguise, opens up space for creativity, allowing translators to imagine new ways to express new ideas within the limits of their languages. One particularly striking example was the choice to use the word “to weave” to translate “to construct.” This kind of linguistic creativity breathes life into a language. Translation, after all, is not merely about finding a perfect match or following strict grammar rules, but about finding meaningful, resonating expressions that carry the spirit of the message in one’s own tongue.

Finally, the event concluded with a talk from the translator of the full white paper, who shared his experiences working with the material. He reminded us that translation is always a challenging process, no matter which language you’re working with, mind-boggled with countless considerations and decisions. But he also emphasized that in language, there is not always a wrong answer, only a better one.

　

Also, before we ended, there is one more Special Event on November 10th to celebrate Wikidata’s 13th birthday in Taiwan. Please see the Special Event page for more details, and we look forward to seeing you again!