CHC Workshop — Lost in Mistranslation: Chinese Documents in English Language Popular Histories of Lin Zexu, the Opium War and China
CHC
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Date
30 Sep 2025
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Organiser
CHC
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Time
10:00 - 11:30
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Venue
R501 Map
Summary
What can we learn from the ways that imperial commissioner Lin Zexu’s statements, declarations, and assessments of western culture and attitudes are interpreted and portrayed in Western historiography? Led by Prof. David Atwill this seminar will examine Lin Zexu’s diaries, letters, and memorials to ponder the manner translation, wording, and even omission in Anglophone histories have shaped Lin’s legacy. No advance reading is expected, though the seminar will draw on the “Introduction” from The Perils of Interpreting by Henrietta Harrison which can be read in advance. The other short excerpts and documents will be made available in the seminar itself where we will read and discuss them together.
