Manuel Pavón-Belizón

This thesis analyzes the translation and translocal circulation of Chinese humanities and social sciences (HSS) works in European and North American contexts between 1989 and 2018. It addresses two main questions: What are the main dynamics and mechanisms at work in those processes of translation and circulation? And what are the conditions that allow certain works and authors to achieve translocal recognition and intellectual legitimacy? For that purpose, this research presents a compilation and analysis of HSS works from China translated into English in order to show a set of macro-level dynamics related to geopolitical factors. Secondly, we study micro-level dynamics via a case study on the translation and circulation of the works of the contemporary thinker Wang Hui (b. 1959) in Anglophone and Italophone contexts. It maps out the dynamics among the different agents that take part in the initiatives to translate his work. Through this case study, we observe the importance of the socio-intellectual embeddedness of a translated author in the reception context.

One of the main elements—if not the element—that has sustained the myth of the continuity and unity of “Chinese civilization” for so long is its writing system, which has invested upon what we now call “China” and “Chinese culture” an aura of permanence and immutability that has constantly been used as an instrument to sustain very different ideas and desires by both Westerners and Chinese. Throughout the outstanding Beyond Sinology: Chinese Writing and the Scripts of Culture, Andrea Bachner brings forward the concept of “script politics” and, relying on a very original approach, lays bare the nuances and contradictions that question long-standing ideas characterized by cultural rigidity, while offering insight into a new way of approaching the study of Chinese cultural phenomena. Bachner does so by drawing on a wide range of theoretical resources for analysis, and a rich selection of cases and cultural manifestations—from calligraphy, photography, cinema and literature, to artistic happenings and installations, including mass choreographies—that stand as witnesses of the malleability and mutability of the Chinese script.

Historically, scholars and intellectuals in the People’s Republic of China actively engaged with the cultural production of other non-Euro-American contexts. However, following the demise of Maoism and the onset of the economic and social reforms known as "Reform and Opening Up" under Deng Xiaoping, the allure of the modernization paradigm diverted the attention of most Chinese academics toward Euro-American cultural and intellectual production, which served as a central reference point from the 1980s well into the 2000s. More recently, the emergence of China as a geopolitical actor on par with the US, coupled with the multiple crises of Euro-American models of sociopolitical organization, has sparked an increasing interest among Chinese intellectuals in conceptualizing modes of understanding and organizing reality beyond conventional Euro-American patterns, and in conceiving new definitions of modernity, often framed as part of official or quasi-official Chinese quests for the legitimacy of domestic models of governance or even for an alternative world order. Nevertheless, distinct scholarly and intellectual initiatives in contemporary China arise from a genuine quest for non-hegemonic, South-to-South cultural and intellectual exchanges, rooted in a willingness to learn from and engage with diverse forms of human experience beyond Euro-American intellectual networks. This chapter analyzes one such case of counter-hegemonic intellectual circulation involving the translation and dissemination of Latin American thought in the PRC: the “Latin American Thought Translation Series” (拉美思想译丛). Edited by Teng Wei and Wei Ran, this series began in 2018 with the Chinese translation and publication of Mexican thinker Samuel Ramos’ El perfil del hombre y la cultura en México (The Profile of Man and Culture in Mexico), and has since published a total of four volumes translated from the Spanish. This chapter examines the intellectual agenda at the foundation of this initiative through a reading of the paratextual materials produced around these volumes. It also analyzes the discourse produced by the editors and translators of this collection in order to introduce these works to their intended Chinese readership and to suggest connections with contemporary issues. This case provides an example of emerging counter-hegemonic intellectual, translational, and editorial practices that connect distinct contexts within the Global South. Furthermore, it offers a more nuanced picture of China’s intellectual landscape and the engagement of Chinese scholars with peers outside hitherto hegemonic settings of cultural production.

This article examines the dynamics driving the translation of contemporary Chinese humanities and social sciences into English between 1989 and 2019. Based on a database of 256 translated works, it identifies three phases of translations: (1) the early 1990s, dominated by works on the 1989 social movement and modernization theory; (2) the early 2000s, marked by a growing interest in China’s intellectual landscape; and (3) the 2010s, characterized by an unprecedented rise in translations, including those initiated and funded by Chinese institutions. This study highlights the mediating role of social, (geo)political, economic and intellectual contexts in shaping translation initiatives, selection processes, and discourse formation. It argues that translation is deeply embedded in geopolitical power structures, influencing the circulation and reception of Chinese humanities and social sciences. By analyzing the evolving dynamics of translation, this article provides insight into how knowledge is transmitted across cultural and political boundaries, revealing the intersection of translation, history, and global power shifts.

This chapter addresses the comparative invisibility of contemporary Chinese women intellectuals in translation flows, focusing on the fields of the humanities and social sciences (HSS). It begins by characterizing the position of Chinese women intellectuals in their own original context and in the translation and circulation of Chinese HSS. I will show that Chinese women intellectuals have occupied a marginal position in the intellectual and academic field of mainland China in comparison to their male counterparts, which is reflected in their lesser visibility in translation. Despite this situation, we find some exceptional cases of women intellectuals whose work has been translated and circulated in other languages. I will address what factors and in what conditions the work of contemporary Chinese women intellectuals have been translated into English in recent decades. For that, I will focus on a specific case study: The translation of the works of Dai Jinhua, a contemporary female cultural studies scholar and public intellectual based at Peking University whose works have been regularly translated and published in English. Her case will allow me to identify the conditions and mechanisms that allow or obstruct processes of translation and circulation. More precisely, I will show the value of social networks in enabling processes of translation. In that sense, this chapter does not only address the issue of invisibility but also intends to point to the social and intellectual practices that counter and challenge those same conditions of invisibility.

This article examines the 2021 Chinese translation of Ariel (1900) by Uruguayan thinker José Enrique Rodó, a seminal text in Latin American intellectual history. Through analysis of the paratexts produced by its translator, editors, and commentators, it explores how Ariel is connected with current Chinese intellectual interests. The study addresses the discursive strategies used in the paratexts to emphasize those aspects of Rodó's work that align with the sociopolitical outlook of its promoters in Chinese, while also neutralizing the text's conservative and Eurocentric elements.