Henrietta Harrison, The Perils of Interpreting (2021)
作者: Henrietta Harrison
出版社: Princeton University Press
副标题: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire
出版年: 2021-11
页数: 304
定价: $29.95 / £25.00
装帧: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780691225456
Main Contents:
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.
About the Author:
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.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments · ix
Dramatis Personae · xi
Introduction 1
PART I LIVES THAT CROSSED THE WORLD 15
CHAPTER 1 The Li Family of Liangzhou 17
CHAPTER 2 George Leonard Staunton of Galway 26
CHAPTER 3 Li Zibiao’s Education in Naples 37
CHAPTER 4 George Thomas Staunton’s Peculiar Childhood 50
PART II LI ZIBIAO AND LORD MACARTNEY’S EMBASSY 59
CHAPTER 5 Finding an Interpreter for an Embassy to China 61
CHAPTER 6 Crossing the Oceans 72
CHAPTER 7 Other Possible Interpreters 85
CHAPTER 8 Li Zibiao as Interpreter and Mediator 100
CHAPTER 9 Speaking to the Emperor 114
CHAPTER 10 Becoming an Invisible Interpreter 129
CHAPTER 11 Li Zibiao after the Embassy 141
PART III GEORGE THOMAS STAUNTON AND THE CANTON TRADE 153
CHAPTER 12 George Thomas Staunton Becomes an Interpreter 155
CHAPTER 13 Sir George Staunton, Translator and Banker 168
CHAPTER 14 The British Occupation of Macao and Its Aftermath 182
CHAPTER 15 A Linguist and His Troubles 195
CHAPTER 16 The Amherst Embassy 207
PART IV EXCLUSION 221
CHAPTER 17 Li Zibiao’s Last Years in Hiding 223
CHAPTER 18 Staunton in Parliament 233
CHAPTER 19 The Opium War 247
CHAPTER 20 Forgetting 259
Conclusion 270
Abbreviations · 275
Glossary · 277
Notes · 279
Selected Bibliography · 319
Illustration Credits · 331
Index · 333
评论