https://sites.google.com/smith.edu/all-about-chinese-music/home?authuser=0
All About Chinese Music Reflection
The goal of this project is to create a collection website to help people understand Chinese musical instruments. To fully explore the boundaries of plagiarism, I decided to plagiarize another student’s work—not only in writing but also in the visual design of the website. By making small changes in analysis while keeping the main structure, I intended to question the definitions of originality and authorship.
I conducted research using both Chinese websites and Google, gathering information on traditional Chinese instruments. To provide a comprehensive experience, I arranged the content by translating texts into both Chinese and English, ensuring accessibility for different audiences. Additionally, I provided performance videos from YouTube so people could hear the instruments in action, allowing for a more immersive learning experience. In this process, I believed I was creating original products. However, the question is: does translating and restructuring a text make it original, or is it still a form of plagiarism? Translation requires interpretation, and in translating, I applied my linguistic knowledge and cultural understanding.
Ultimately, my project is by plagiarism. Although I translated and reorganized the text, the foundational ideas and research were taken from another author. Furthermore, I used another student’s idea of designing a collection website, incorporating their structure and visual concepts into my own work. This demonstrates that plagiarism extends beyond mere text—it includes intellectual concepts and creative execution. My main goal in this project was to explore the boundaries of plagiarism by deliberately engaging in it. I wanted to examine whether translation and reinterpretation could create an original work or if plagiarism persisted despite these modifications. By reflecting on my choices, I realized that even when content undergoes transformation through language and format, its origins remain significant.
Furthermore, using the example of Jumi Bello pointing out Jonathan Bailey’s unintentional plagiarism could lead to serious consequences. This project highlights the nuances of authorship and the role of intent in determining originality. If someone unknowingly translates a work without attribution, does that make it any less of a violation? Does creative input during translation grant ownership of the material? These questions emphasize the complexity of plagiarism beyond only copying. Even though I used my own experiences from the Chinese music ensemble at Smith and made modifications through translation, the core structure remained borrowed. This confirms that my project, despite its alterations, is still plagiarism.
Additionally, the visual aspect of the website further complicates the discussion. By adopting another student’s design choices, I not only replicated their content but also their conceptual framework. This raises broader concerns about the ownership of design and structure in digital projects. Can design elements be plagiarized in the same way as written text, and if so, where do we draw the line between inspiration and theft? In conclusion, this project allowed me to critically engage with plagiarism as a concept, testing its boundaries through intentional transgression. My exploration revealed that despite translation and modification, the essence of plagiarism remains when foundational ideas and structures are borrowed without original contribution. This reflection underscores the ethical responsibility of creators to acknowledge sources and question the legitimacy of their own work.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tx5FC8pSt6amblB_HPjnf0oOVjfn-UybB-t5G3Eky5U/edit?tab=t.0
Acknowledgment:
I am deeply grateful to a first-year psychology student, who wishes to remain anonymous, for her invaluable guidance, insightful suggestions, and continuous support throughout the development of my reflection paper. (she also fixed this acknowledgment)