Dear all,
The Lecture titled Global Knowledge Circulation in 20th-Century China: How Translation Was Planned and Organized in Times of Transformation will be held at 15:00~18:00 on Friday, October 16, Room 302,Library of ShanghaiTech University. Please find below the abstract and a brief introduction to the speaker.
Abstract: China's modernization process in the 20th century was inseparable from the extensive translation activities carried out since the late Qing dynasty. Existing research mainly focuses on the role of translators and how their translation motivations—namely, the motivation to transfer knowledge to their own knowledge community—were shaped by aspirations such as patriotism, social reform, or technological progress.
This lecture will focus on the role of translators after the founding of the People's Republic of China. They were situated within a sociopolitical structure that both enabled and constrained their access to foreign knowledge; nevertheless, they were still able to continue as part of the international scientific community. The lecture will show how institutional arrangements and personal networks made this possible, and will explore the implications of this for the period after 1978.
This lecture helps deepen understanding of 20th-century Chinese translation history, global knowledge circulation, translator agency within institutions and networks, and the relationship between Chinese intellectual circles and the international scientific community after the founding of New China.
Speaker:Marc Andre Matten, Professor of Contemporary Chinese History at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Research interests: Contemporary Chinese History, history of knowledge production, global history.