Before we start doing anything, we have to consider the following:

1. Besides myself, are there Chinese literate Tropers? I'm from Taiwan myself, but I haven't really lived there, so most of the information regarding translated names and such I'm pulling from the internet.
2. Simplified vs. Traditional Chinese. Except for the whole Dub Name issue, it's trivial to convert from one to the other. As much as I love traditional Chinese, I wouldn't be too hung up about it if we decided that having the wiki in both would be too much work. Count this as a tentative vote for "official Mainland Chinese work names as the main, other official translations as redirects". (So, for example, Final Fantasy would be {{最终幻想}}, with {{太空战士}} as the redirect.)
3. Other dialects. While theoretically everybody's supposed to be able to read Mandarin, some (if not all) of the dialects have their own slight variants even in the written form. I can't speak any of them so I have no opinion.

Then, when we get down to translating, this is the approximate priority of terms that I would take:

1. Terms somewhat specific to the site, such as Trope, Narm, etc.
2. Idiomatic expressions that don't translate directly (just quickly glancing at my own watchlist, I see Time Out, Stealing From The Till, and Trigger Happy). Luckily when it comes to some things, there are equivalent expressions either because somebody's already had to translate it before, or because it's a universal concept.
3. Stuff that can be thrown into an automatic translator. This would just need someone who has a good enough literacy level to check that the translation makes sense.
4. Stuff that would need a dictionary and a troper familiar with Chinese grammatical construction to smooth out the sentence structure. Chinese has looser rules when it comes to grammar (for one, a sentence with multiple independent clauses is fine so long as it's a single train of thought) and it's almost completely reliant on context to provide tense, number, and gender.

edited 3rd Mar '11 7:24:45 AM by dotchan

1. I am Chinese myself, so I might be able to help. Though.... I'm not from Taiwan or Mainland, so I'm probably useless regarding the naming issues.

2. Seconded, it will be easier for the editors and the server than to have 2 different pages for different regions.

3. If going with TheOtherWiki, there's only 2 other "dialects", namely Cantonese and classical Chinese 文言文. I can understand the reason of using Cantonese (as well as some Cantonese in text, but wouldn't be able to help much), but classical Chinese is a bit.... too much.

edited 4th Mar '11 9:24:20 AM by Tenorphin

Yeah, Classical Chinese would definitely fall under the Awesome, but Impractical category. And since I'm not very familiar with it, any attempt at making Chinese sound classical would probably result in Ye Olde Syndrome.

I'm interested in such a project.

First thing in my mind is how to translate Troper. 比喻者？

Home Page translation:

这是关于什么的? 这个维基是一个收集写故事的所有方法的目录。

比喻是作者可以可靠依赖是在观众的想法和预料中存在的习俗和技巧。一般而言，比喻不是陈词滥调。就是说，无聊和无趣的。我们不是要无聊和无趣的条目。我们在这里是要认识比喻和与它们玩，不是取笑它们。

这个维基叫"TV Tropes"因为我们是跟电视开始的。随着时间的推移，我们已经把自己的范围广大以包括其他媒介。比喻超越电视。他们表达生活。因为艺术，尤其是大众艺术，是尽量反映生活的，比喻到处都可以出现。

这不是维基百科。我们比他们非正式多了。我们鼓励轻松语言和有创意的想法。没有关注度这种东西，而且不需要来源。如果你的条目没有因维基魔术而收集到证据，它只会枯萎而死。之前呢，它可以在主比喻索引被找到。

在每一个网页的左上角点击"Troperville"以找比喻者社会集合谈天的地方。

尽情玩吧！

Also, I can't seem to pothole Chinese characters as it gives me gibberish.

edited 15th Mar '11 4:18:00 AM by Exploder

My attempt, but it's not as faithful to the English: (Temporarily leaving "trope" untranslated since we here at the wiki aren't using it in the traditional sense.)

这是怎么回事? 这维基是个收集写作秘诀的目录。

Tropes是那些作家能合理地假设存在观众想法与预料中的技巧和惯例。一般而言，tropes不是陈词滥调，因为那些是无聊和无趣的，而我们并不想收集无聊无趣的条目。我们在此是要认出tropes和利用它们，而不是取笑它们。

这个维基叫"TV Tropes"因为我们是从电视节目开始的。随着时间流逝，我们已经把范围广大到包括了其他媒介。Tropes超越电视，他们反映出生活的每一部分，而艺术，尤其是大众艺术，也是尽量表达生活的每一部分，所以tropes到处都可能会出现。

这不是维基百科，我们比他们随便多了。我们鼓励轻松表达方式和原始思维。这里没有所谓的关注度，而且更不需要找来源。如果你的条目没有因维基魔法而收集到足够证据，它只会枯萎而死。在那之前呢，它可以在主tropes索引被找到。

在每一个网页的左上角点击"Troperville"以找tropers社会集合谈天的地方。

尽情地去玩吧！

I think "Trope" probably should be translated into "梗" ("哏" is the correct form, but most use the former anyway), which itself means "plot/plot device/gag". Given the nature of tropes, I think it would be a good way to translate it. Though, I don't know how much "梗" is used in mainland China, and it doesn't seem to be a popular word in Hong Kong.

About the language use, I think maybe we should first work on Mandarin, probably with Traditional Chinese characters? Mandarin because most Chinese should be able to read, while next to none outside Guangdong can read Cantonese. Traditional Chinese is optional, but I think it would be way easier to translate it into Simplified Chinese than the other way around.

edited 17th Mar '11 12:16:38 PM by renovalino

Really? I've only seen 梗 used to mean "stem". And don't sweat the switch between Simplified and Traditional—just feed it into Google translate and it'll do all the work.

edited 18th Mar '11 10:19:26 AM by dotchan

梗 is actually a miswritten form of the word 哏 in Taiwan. Or so Wikipedia says. It is translated to mean gag. There's another phrase I'd like to propose to mean "trope" — 桥段.

Yes, but 桥段 is not as catchy as Trope or 哏, and I personally think 桥段 is a bit dull.

I see your point, but it's easier to understand compared to 哽. Then again, we don't want "dull and uninteresting". Hmm.

To be fair, Trope itself is not a common word either. I think having a paragraph explaining the concept should be enough. It is more important to keep it catchy and not dull.

What are the terms specific to TV Tropes? I haven't been an editor for The Other Wiki since they deleted my last article about a webcomic for not being "notable" enough.

Basically every words with "Trope" in it, like Tropers, Tropeville and such.

Isn't Narm and the entire [Whatever] Yay family Trope-isms, too? I seem to remember there being others.

Narm can be translated as bathos (突降) or something. We'll have to find more normal English words for these "special" words first before translating, I guess.

Just to get this off my mind, I'm going to post a list of suggestions for some of the tropenames.

Schmuck Bait - 愚饵

Just peeking in here and suddenly realize how pathetic I am at my own language.

So, anybody wondering how to translate Human Alien?

The best I can think of right off my head is 人形异形, but it could be somewhat subtle since it's a blend between words changed from an idiom (人云亦云), as well as a homophonal word change.

(Oh, hey, this thread is still alive!)

That's probably the most succinct way to put it.

I guess so. Thank the gods that Chinese is such a punny language.

I'm from mainland China and we're all required to learn how to read classic Chinese ever since the beginning of junior high. Care to let me join?

I can write Cantonese and Hunan dialect.