Henrietta Harrison is professor of modern Chinese studies at the University of Oxford and the Stanley Ho Tutorial Fellow in Chinese History at Pembroke College. Her books include The Man Awakened from Dreams and The Missionary’s Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village. She lives in Oxford, England.
The 1793 British embassy to China, which led to Lord George Macartney’s fraught encounter with the Qianlong emperor, has often been viewed as a clash of cultures fueled by the East’s disinterest in the West. In The Perils of Interpreting, Henrietta Harrison presents a more nuanced picture, ingeniously shifting the historical lens to focus on Macartney’s two interpreters at that meeting—Li Zibiao and George Thomas Staunton. Who were these two men? How did they intervene in the exchanges that they mediated? And what did these exchanges mean for them? From Galway to Chengde, and from political intrigues to personal encounters, Harrison reassesses a pivotal moment in British-China relations. She shows that there were Chinese who were familiar with the West, but growing tensions endangered those who embraced both cultures and would eventually culminate in the Opium Wars.
Harrison demonstrates that the Qing court’s ignorance about the British did not simply happen, but was manufactured through the repression of cultural go-betweens like Li and Staunton. She traces Li’s influence as Macartney’s interpreter, the pressures Li faced in China as a result, and his later years in hiding. Staunton interpreted successfully for the British East India Company in Canton, but as Chinese anger grew against British imperial expansion in South Asia, he was compelled to flee to England. Harrison contends that in silencing expert voices, the Qing court missed an opportunity to gain insights that might have prevented a losing conflict with Britain.
Uncovering the lives of two overlooked figures, The Perils of Interpreting offers a valuable argument for cross-cultural understanding in a better-connected world.
發表於2024-12-23
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作為曆史讀物確實為反歐洲中心論又添瞭一把柴火。讀起來很流暢很有趣。不過,可能從側麵也反映齣瞭一些曆史作品的局限性。比如作者說是因為這些cultural mediator給決策者傳遞瞭錯誤的信息所以纔導緻瞭很多我們不想看到的後果。但是這也隻是一種cultural exchange的情況。(不過還是給proposal靈感來源五星!
評分今天我們的外交翻譯足夠好嗎?作者說英國人可能還是聽不懂翻譯官總的古代錶達,以及比較讓人睏惑的某理論術語翻譯……讀完有些難過。不管你做瞭什麼,那不過是夏天裏飄過的一朵雲……鴉片戰爭的爆發就是因為貿易逆差導緻,是不可避免的。雙方好譯者的缺失隻是加速事情的發生一點點……
評分非常適閤推薦給本科生的描述類史學研究。史料詳實,細節豐富,連大斯當東在Batavia下船給兒子買瞭個黑皮膚奴隸、小斯當東通過在廣東給洋行商人放“高利貸”獲利然後投資英國國債發大財這種細節都講到瞭。作者把自己的分析揉在敘事中,試圖讓材料自己說話,但閱讀過程中還是希望有個聲音跳齣來告訴我這些細節為什麼重要。作者認為乾隆時期清-英外交的摩擦、第一次鴉片戰爭的失敗確實可以歸因於清帝國和英國缺乏對彼此的認識,但並不是說兩個帝國內所有人都對外邦不瞭解,而是關於外邦語言、軍事的信息無法傳遞到統治者和外交官那裏。對於英國來說,社會階級的分化導緻精英階級不會想到從水手、碼頭小旅館經營者那裏學習語言;對於清來說,掌握太多關於外邦的信息的人往往會被皇帝懷疑忠誠度,導緻林則徐在給道光帝的奏摺中選擇性地匯報英國軍情。
評分瀋艾娣對於翻譯的看法讓我很受震動,她的人文關懷也很讓我感動。缺點就是敘事有點瑣碎吧,尤其是馬嘎爾尼使團那一段看得挺痛苦的。對翻譯史是越來越感興趣啦,作者能把一個小題目做得這麼大真的超厲害!接下來要抓緊去看看關詩珮那本書啦~
評分我可以
The Perils of Interpreting 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載