This opening chapter explores what it means for a nation to render its scholarship visible within global knowledge exchanges through outbound translation and publication, with particular attention to China’s Outbound Academic Translation Initiative (COATI). Supported by the National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences, COATI aims to disseminate Chinese scholarship in the social sciences and humanities to international audiences. In this context, translation is not treated as a purely linguistic exercise but as a strategic instrument for enhancing the international visibility, circulation, and influence of Chinese intellectual traditions. The chapter conceptualises translation as a socially embedded practice, shaped by institutional arrangements, policy frameworks, ideological orientations, and the ongoing negotiations among multiple human and nonhuman actors. Outbound academic translation thus emerges as a critical site for examining how knowledge is produced, reconfigured, and legitimised across national and linguistic boundaries. To analyse these processes, the chapter introduces the book’s sociological framework—drawing on Actor Network Theory, Bourdieu’s theory of practice, and Archer’s realist social theory—and outlines the study’s methodology and overall structure.