Translation between China and Europe in the Long Eighteenth Century

Abstract

This paper is a brief review of the translation works between China and Europe in the long eighteenth century. The translations of Western texts into Chinese in the period can be roughly divided into three categories: religious texts, scientific works and popular literary writings. The latter two categories usually served missionary purposes and to some degree were regarded as an extension and by-product of missionary endeavours. Additionally, the translation of Chinese novels into English in the period provides a lens through which we can explore the nature of European–Chinese transcultural exchange in the globalised era. In the long eighteenth century when the missionaries began to translate Chinese literary works into English, reading tastes in England were already broadened, reaching out to the European continent, to the Turkish and Arabian East and to America, if not fully “globalized”. The translation and change of the text in this process can tell us how the Chinese fiction is (mis)understood, translated, revised and received in England and Europe, and the transcultural exchanges that it signifies between China and England or Europe in the long eighteenth century.