Article published In: Translation and Interpreting Studies
Vol. 18:1 (2023) ► pp.139–158
First encounters
The earliest approaches to translating and interpreting the Chinese language in the early modern period
Published online: 22 May 2023
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.20052.mor
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.20052.mor
Abstract
This article examines the earliest extant translations from Chinese in the period of the first systematic
encounters between Chinese and Europeans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It argues that agents of the Spanish and
Portuguese empires in the context of early modern colonialism devised practical and effective social and linguistic approaches for
translating Chinese. The article investigates three such approaches: the use of Chinese interpreters who learned European
languages; the use of oral translation in the collaboration between Chinese and European interpreters; and the use of Europeans
fluent in Chinese translating themselves.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Captive translation
- The collaborative model
- Total immersion
- Conclusion
- Notes
References
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