Crossing Borders: Sinology in Translation Studies

Lawrence Wang-chi Wong · T. H. Barrett

Apr 2022 · Asian Translation Traditions Series Book 4 · The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press

About this ebook

This edited volume investigates translations from the languages of China into the languages of Western societies, from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Rather than focusing solely on the activity of translation, the authors extend their explorations to cover the contexts within which the translators worked from different perspectives, touching on various aspects of the institutional and intellectual backgrounds that informed their writings. Studies of translation from literary Chinese into English constitute the majority of the contributions, but the volume is also illuminated by excursions into Latin, French and Italian, while the problems of translating the Naxi script are confronted as well. In addition, the wider context of the rendering of Chinese into other languages is explored through a survey of recent Japanese translation series. Throughout the volume, translation is presented not simply as a linguistic exercise but rather as a key element in world history, well worthy of further interdisciplinary investigation.

About the author

T. H. Barrett is Professor Emeritus of East Asian History at the Department of Religions and Philosophies in SOAS University of London. A 1971 Cambridge graduate in Chinese Studies, he gained a Ph.D. from Yale in Buddhist Studies in 1978. His main publications concern historical aspects of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism in China and Japan, especially religious printing in East Asia. He has also written extensively on the understanding of China in Britain.

Lawrence Wang-chi Wong is Professor Emeritus and Research Professor at the Department of Translation in The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is concurrently Director of the Research Centre for Translation. He received his Ph.D. from SOAS University of London. He has published extensively on modern Chinese literature, Hong Kong, and Chinese translation history in the 18th–20th centuries. His recent projects are mostly about the translators and translation issues in Sino-British diplomatic relations in the 18th–19th centuries.