Michael Witzel with Thorsten Pattberg, Tokyo 2013

Professor Michael Witzel invited me to Harvard University back in 2010 so that I could use collections and library resources of the earliest European missionaries in China dating back to 1649. Although there was little funding for such an original project, it nevertheless proved to be very successful, cumulating into my works on translation history and, ultimately, the re-emergence of the shengren. See China Daily, Japan Times. The list goes on. [photo: Tokyo, May 24, 2013].

LANGUAGE IMPERIALISM

What is 'Language Imperialism?'

Other than in linguistic imperialism, in which one language replaces another, in language imperialism certain terminologies are translated into familiar vocabulary of one's own language tradition. For example, the early European missionaries translated key words in the Confucian classics into biblical taxonomy, and claimed that China could easily become a Christian nation this way. [BACK TO MAIN]