After Babel in China

Abstract

When George Steiner’s After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation was published in 1975, the excitement and controversy generated by this book in the West were naturally unknown in China since the country was still in the thrall of the Cultural Revolution. Nevertheless, the subsequent journey of After Babel to Chi­na seems to be unimpeded, though apparently belated, which is understandable, given the fact that the Chinese Cultural Revolution only came to an end in late 1976, prior to which the conditions for accepting such Western theoretical works did not exist. This paper will present a succinct trajectory of the reception of After Babel by reviewing how some of the key concepts of Steiner’s hermeneutic theory were and are perceived and adapted to the Chinese environment. The travel of Stei­ner’s theory to China will be briefly sketched, followed by accounts of different in­terpretations of Steiner’s chapter “The Hermeneutic Motion” and a discussion of the various attempts to supplement and expand it in a critical light. Some specific examples concerning English-Chinese and Chinese-English translations are dis­cussed in order to illuminate the relevance and applicability of the theoretical con­cepts con­tained in After Babel for addressing some of the fundamental issues per­tain­ing to translation.