Modern Selfhood in Translation

This book examines the development of Chinese translation practice in relation to the rise of ideas of modern selfhood in China from the 1890s to the 1920s. The key translations produced by late Qing and early Republican Chinese intellectuals over the three decades in question reflect a preoccupation with new personality ideals informed by foreign models and the healthy development of modern individuality, in the face of crises compounded by feelings of cultural inadequacy. The book clarifies how these translated works supplied the meanings for new terms and concepts that signify modern human experience, and sheds light on the ways in which they taught readers to internalize the idea of the modern as personal experience. Through their selection of source texts and their adoption of different translation strategies, the translators chosen as case studies championed a progressive view of the world: one that was open-minded and humanistic. The late Qing construction of modern Chineseidentity, instigated under the imperative of national salvation in the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War, wielded a far-reaching influence on the New Culture discourse. This book argues that the New Culture translations, being largely explorations of modern self-consciousness, helped to produce an egalitarian cosmopolitan view of modern being. This was a view favoured by the majority of mainland intellectuals in the post-Maoist 1980s and which has since become an important topic in mainland scholarship.

Auteur
Dr. Limin Chi is head of the Chinese Department at Kiangsu-Chekiang College, Hong Kong, with research interests in Chinese studies (Chinese intellectual and literary history since the 1890s), translation studies and applied linguistics. Previously he taught at Nanjing Normal University, the University of Auckland and Auckland International College. He completed his undergraduate studies in English at Xuzhou Normal University, China, and has obtained two master's degrees: one in applied linguistics (University of Melbourne) and the other in translation studies (Monash University). He received his PhD in cultural studies from Monash University.

Contenu
IntroductionFrom Self-Strengthening to New CultureIdentity, Chinese Modernity and TranslationThe Role of Translation and Translators in Translation StudiesApproaches to Researching Chinese Translation History and Thesis OverviewChapter 1Modernization Through Translation: Shifts and Trends (1890s 1900s)1.1 Statistical Analysis of Translated Works1.2 Modern Development of the Print Culture and the Rise of Translation1.2.1 The Patronage of Publishers and Literary Journals1.2.2 Liang Qichao a Leading Patron of Translation1.3 Translation from Japanese1.4 Translation of Textbooks as a Response to the Promotion of Modern Education1.5 Acquiring Modern Values Through Science Translation1.5.1 From Gezhi to Kexue Science and Modern Chinese Identity1.5.2 Promotion of Scientific Understanding as a Marker of Modern Fitness1.6 Translation of Fiction1.6.1 Translation of Political Fiction1.6.2 Translation of Science Fiction1.6.3 Translation of Detective StoriesConclusionChapter 2Translation as an Education in Modern Values: Yan Fu and Liang Qichao2.1 Yan Fu on Western Social Thought2.1.1 Yan Fu's Selection of Works for Translation2.1.2 Yan Fu's Translation and Writing Style2.1.3 Yan Fu's Translation Strategy as Dictated by His Ideology of Modernity2.2 Liang Qichao on Modern Citizenship Through Translation2.2.1 Liang Qichao's Promotion of Modern Attributes2.2.2 Liang Qichao's Fiction TranslationConclusionChapter 3 Making a New Culture Through Translation3.1Acquisition of Western Knowledge3.1.1 The Impact of Late Qing Translations on the New Generation of Chinese Intellectuals3.1.2 Overseas Study3.2 Translation as a Precursor to New CultureConclusionChapter 4Translating New Culture into a Collective Identity4.1 New Culture Collectives4.1.1 The New Youth Group4.1.2 The Association for Literary Studies and Short Story Monthly4.2 The Growing Authority of Translated Works4.3 Otherness and Identity Politics - New Youth Debates with Lin ShuConclusionChapter 5Constructing the Modern Self in Translation (I) Hu Shi5.1 Hu Shi's Rewriting of Ibsen and Promotion of Liberal-Individualist Ideals5.2 Nora as a Literary Trope for Self-Empowerment5.3 Hu Shi's Short Story and Poetry Translation and His Development of Cosmopolitan Humanism5.4 The Influence of Foreign Thinkers and Hu Shi's Academic Approach to China's Modern Transformation5.5 Promotion of Modern VernacularConclusionChapter 6Constructing the Modern Self in Translation (II) Zhou Zuoren6.1 Discovering Humanity in Dishrags and Sad Beauty6.2 Faith in Humanity6.3 Zhou Zuoren and the May Fourth Cult of Children6.4 Promoting Gender Equality and Modern Womanhood6.5 The Naturalness of Humanity and the Invisible UtilityConclusionChapter 7Constructing the Modern Self in Translation (III) Lu Xun7.1 The Nietzschean Spirit7.2 An Instructive Realism7.3 The Social Exteriorization of Mental Anguish7.4 Investing Hope in the YoungConclusionConclusionReferencesAppendix