On The Multiple Roles Of The Hart Brothers Translating The Convention Of Calcutta In The Late Qing Dynasty

In its late regime,the Qing Government,in order to preserve its administration,was forced to sign hundreds of treaties,agreements and conventions with foreign powers.Due to a lack of translators at home and doubt that domestic translators might leak national secrets to foreign powers,the Qing Government turned to have foreigners be the translators,who usually perform multiple roles during the translating process.Focused on the Hart Brothers,translators of the Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet,the present study aims to investigate following questions:1.What roles did the Hart Brothers perform besides the role of translator?2.How did they organize their multiple roles?What kind of influence did such role organization have on their translating behavior?3.Did their final performance of the role of translator leave any marks on the conclusion of the Convention of Calcutta?Bases on an analysis on the telegrams between the Hart Brothers and the confidential archives collected by China's Imperial Maritime Customs Service,it is found that the Hart Brothers performed the role of mediator and family roles besides that of translator during the negotiation of the Convention and thus were tasked with dissolving disputes between the two parties and concluding a treaty as soon as possible.To this end,the Hart Brothers did not fully translate all the notes between the two sides.Rather,they delayed performing their translation duties and conveyed sensitive information in vague language.They took the role of mediator and family roles as a priority and failed to fully perform the role of translator.Such role organization influenced their translating behavior directly.