Elucidation As Manipulation

Chinese Repository is a monthly journal established by Elijah Coleman Bridgman, the first American Protestant missionary sent to China, and it incorporates substantial translations scattered inside that have not yet received sufficient attention they deserve. Moreover, the existent, sporadic case studies of these translations chiefly focus on the linguistic transference between the source texts and target texts, and fail to pay enough heed to the external factors. Consequently, the part the translations have played in the intellectual colonization project is still shrouded in the mist.Based on the concept of manipulation proposed by Andre Lefevere and the metonymics of translation by Maria Tymoczko, a new instrument is devised for analysis, namely the elucidation as manipulation. Elucidation can be regared as a translation strategy while manipulation is both a state and a purpose. Theoretically speaking, elucidation can be neutral, or a purely technical tool; manipulation can be a natural result that arises in every practice of translation. However, against the historical context of the unequal diplomatic dealings between the Qing government and the west, such a mechanism, elucidation as manipulation, can never be as innocent as translation has been supposed to be for a long time. The missionaries are ideologically and theologically charged and entertain an ambitious enterprise to translate China. Through translations, they construct images of China in various scopes, and these images together form a comprehensive image of China that is labeled as ignorant, uncivilized and heretic, thus legalizing their colonization project under the pretense of the Christianization and civilization.Four categorizes of translations are to be analyzed for the purpose of revealing the specific way they construct the image of China as well as the exact images constructed. These four categories are translations of literature, educational materials, state papers, and history. Literature is the main channel through which the west can acquaint itself with the Chinese characters rapidly; educational materials are translated to highlight how frighteningly the Chinese educational system has retarded children’s intellectual development; state papers are rendered for their confrontation with the Qing government that makes it necessary to know more about their enemy government; the translation of history serves to familiarize them more with this age-old nation. These four categories are logically related and participate more directly in the construction of China’s image as well as the execution of their colonization project.The period during which this journal existed is the First Opium War when China slipped into the semi-colonial and semi-feudal state. This is part of the entire colonization enterprise the imperialistic west pursues. Consequently, the postcolonial idea permeates the entire thesis and forms the concealed theoretical framework behind.