具体描述
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.
用户评价
##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。
评分##我可以
评分##今天我们的外交翻译足够好吗？作者说英国人可能还是听不懂翻译官总的古代表达，以及比较让人困惑的某理论术语翻译……读完有些难过。不管你做了什么，那不过是夏天里飘过的一朵云……鸦片战争的爆发就是因为贸易逆差导致，是不可避免的。双方好译者的缺失只是加速事情的发生一点点……
评分##鸦战之前，中英两国都有对彼此有所了解的民众在，为何这场战争没能避免？关于异国的知识如何传播，而这些知识又能对一个国家的外交决策产生多大程度的影响…….种种在本书中展开的问题，都能让今日的我们有“似曾相识之感”。 （小斯当东和李自标都是其祖国的“文化异乡人”，这点竟让我很能共情…….
评分##可以算是心目中全球史与微观史结合又一个典型案例了，不只是跨文化的故事，更有大问题的关怀。
评分##以近代史史料之繁复，能够爬梳多语言档案、洞悉其中的草蛇灰线、又能以“深描”的叙事方式把大小历史结合起来的学者不多，沈老师算一位。数十年来关于马戛尔尼使团访华的研究汗牛充栋，但作者却别出心裁地将目光投注在了此行的两位译员身上，也因此有了许多有趣的发现：比如拉丁文才是翻译过程中的medium language，因为华人李自标自幼在那不勒斯学院接受的是古典学教育，并没有相应的英文知识，只能靠拉丁文与使节团进行沟通；以及使节团提出的天主教传教自由的要求其实是李出于自己的天主教徒背景而夹带进的“私货”，尽管并未获得成功。作者认为嘉庆时期对这种in-between的文化中介者的不信任导致了译者的疏离，进而造成决策者对英帝国信息的缺失和误判。如果最后没有又回到检讨鸦片战争失败原因的老路上就更好了……
评分##作为历史读物确实为反欧洲中心论又添了一把柴火。读起来很流畅很有趣。不过，可能从侧面也反映出了一些历史作品的局限性。比如作者说是因为这些cultural mediator给决策者传递了错误的信息所以才导致了很多我们不想看到的后果。但是这也只是一种cultural exchange的情况。（不过还是给proposal灵感来源五星！
评分##应当是掌握了相当多的一手史料
评分##真的太好看了！此处立誓要写出一本差不多好看的！
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