The Perils of Interpreting

书名：The Perils of InterpretingTheExtraordinaryLivesofTwoTranslatorsbetweenQingChinaandtheBritishEmpire
作者：HenriettaHarrison
译者：
ISBN：9780691225456
出版社：PrincetonUniversityPress
出版时间：2021-11
格式：epub/mobi/azw3/pdf
页数：304
豆瓣评分： 8.9

书籍简介：

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.

作者简介：

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.

书友短评：

@ 王大福 非常适合推荐给本科生的描述类史学研究。史料详实，细节丰富，连大斯当东在Batavia下船给儿子买了个黑皮肤奴隶、小斯当东通过在广东给洋行商人放“高利贷”获利然后投资英国国债发大财这种细节都讲到了。作者把自己的分析揉在叙事中，试图让材料自己说话，但阅读过程中还是希望有个声音跳出来告诉我这些细节为什么重要。作者认为乾隆时期清-英外交的摩擦、第一次鸦片战争的失败确实可以归因于清帝国和英国缺乏对彼此的认识，但并不是说两个帝国内所有人都对外邦不了解，而是关于外邦语言、军事的信息无法传递到统治者和外交官那里。对于英国来说，社会阶级的分化导致精英阶级不会想到从水手、码头小旅馆经营者那里学习语言；对于清来说，掌握太多关于外邦的信息的人往往会被皇帝怀疑忠诚度，导致林则徐在给道光帝的奏折中选择性地汇报英国军情。 @ 若口引 人生中第一部全文通读的外文历史学著作。沈艾娣在处理全球史与小人物时，兼带的对个体生命的关怀令人感动，一个早期全球化但又被日后的imperialism、nationalism所遮蔽的18世纪在书中逐渐浮现。"It is only with this knowledge of other cultures that together we can build a future for the interconnected world that we live in today." @ Astoria Zhou 非常精彩！

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 A ND 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
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