This proposal is based on the theme and topics of Chinese Tujia Minority ballads collected on a one-week field investigation journey by the leading guest editor and his academic team in the summer of 2016. In consequent discussions and symposiums, 28 ballads out of 50 that are representative in terms of theme, melody, lyric, influence, among others were selected and subscribed into Chinese. We believe to translate them into English with necessary appreciation and criticism shall be of academic significance, especially for cultural studies, folklore studies, and related sociological disciplines.

Currently China is experiencing quick progress in dual transformation of both civilization and culture: in terms of civilization, from traditional agricultural society into industrial, and in coastal and south-eastern developed areas, from industrial into postmodern society; and in terms of culture, from empiricism-oriented into rationalism-oriented, and in the developed areas from rationalism-oriented to information-culture oriented cultural patterns. Peripheral cultures, especially those cultures of the social strands that have been less developed in the process of modernization, are encountering various puzzles and crossroads in both their preservation and transmission (due to the quick migration from rural countries to urban cities).

With such awareness, for about one decade, a team of scholars (mainly specialized in cultural studies) have been dedicated to studies of marginal cultures in China, and the current study is a part of such projects. Translation, appreciation and criticism.

Contributors are invited to translate, appreciate and criticize the 28 selected ballads. Most papers in this thematic issue study topics in the terrains of literature, culture, transmission, comparative studies, and intercultural communication.

Relevant studies of humanity and science in the new era are welcome, which shall broadly be categorized into (but not necessarily limited to) the following four columns: literature, literary criticism, cultural studies, and philosophy of culture.