Bilingual Essays Implementation Plan

For Claude: REQUIRED SUB-SKILL: Use superpowers:executing-plans to implement this plan task-by-task.

Goal: Convert the Essays system to bilingual full-text essays with optional Bilibili embeds while keeping one URL per essay.

Architecture: Essays remain in the Jekyll essays collection. Rendering changes happen in three places: the homepage highlights, the essays index, and the single-essay layout. Data should stay in a single essay file by using bilingual front matter and two language-specific content blocks controlled by the global lang-block system already used across the site.

Tech Stack: Jekyll collections, Liquid templates, Markdown/HTML content blocks, SCSS, Python verification script

Task 1: Add failing verification for bilingual essays

Files:

• Modify: E:/research_projects/personal/ShengrenHou.github.io/scripts/verify_public_site.py

Step 1: Write the failing test

Add expectations for:

• bilingual essay metadata fields such as subtitle_zh and excerpt_zh
• language-specific rendering hooks in _pages/essays.md, _pages/about.md, and _layouts/essay.html
• optional bilibili_embed support in the essay layout
• bilingual blocks in the seed essay

Step 2: Run test to verify it fails

Run:

py -3 scripts/verify_public_site.py

Expected: fail because the current Essays feature still uses Chinese-first body plus English abstract.

Task 2: Update the rendering layer

Files:

• Modify: E:/research_projects/personal/ShengrenHou.github.io/_pages/about.md
• Modify: E:/research_projects/personal/ShengrenHou.github.io/_pages/essays.md
• Modify: E:/research_projects/personal/ShengrenHou.github.io/_layouts/essay.html
• Modify: E:/research_projects/personal/ShengrenHou.github.io/_sass/_founder-site.scss

Step 1: Implement minimal bilingual rendering

• Use English metadata when the site is in English mode
• Use Chinese metadata when the site is in Chinese mode
• Add a clean Bilibili embed block if page.bilibili_embed is present

Step 2: Run verification

Run:

py -3 scripts/verify_public_site.py

Expected: may still fail until the seed essay content is upgraded.

Task 3: Convert the seed essay

Files:

• Modify: E:/research_projects/personal/ShengrenHou.github.io/_essays/2026-03-17-do-not-wait.md

Step 1: Convert to bilingual essay data

• Add subtitle_zh
• Add excerpt_zh
• Replace the current single-language body structure with bilingual lang-block sections
• Keep the optional video field available for future use

Step 2: Run final verification

Run:

py -3 scripts/verify_public_site.py
git -C E:\research_projects\personal\ShengrenHou.github.io diff --check

Expected: both commands pass.

Task 4: Deploy and confirm

Files:

• None

Step 1: Commit and push

git -C E:\research_projects\personal\ShengrenHou.github.io add .
git -C E:\research_projects\personal\ShengrenHou.github.io commit -m "feat: support bilingual essays"
git -C E:\research_projects\personal\ShengrenHou.github.io push origin master

Step 2: Confirm live

• homepage essay highlight switches language correctly
• /essays/ switches language correctly
• the seed essay displays the correct full body in each language