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People
Professors
Prof James ST. ANDRÉ
沈安德教授

Position :
Chairman, Professor, Director of Centre for Translation Technology
Address :
Room 125, 1/F, Leung Kau Kui Building, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Educational Qualifications
  • PhD, The University of Chicago
  • MA, The University of Chicago
  • BA, Boston University
Fields of Research/Teaching
  • Translation history
  • Translation theory
  • Chinese-English translation
  • Digital humanities
  • see also Research Statement
Research Grants/Projects

Research Grants

  • Principal Investigator, “Reconceptualizing Chinese-English translator networks in the nineteenth century”, General Research Fund, Research Grant Council, Hong Kong, 2019-2020
  • Principal Investigator, “Conceptualizing China through Translation”, General Research Fund, Research Grant Council, Hong Kong, 2016-2018
  • Co-Principal Investigator (With William Schroeder, University of Manchester) “China in Ten Words: Conceptualising Chinese Culture through Translation” British Inter-University China Centre 2014-2015
  • Co-Principal Investigator (with Peng Hsiao-yen, Academia Sinica) “China and Its Others: Knowledge Transfer and Representations of China and the West” 2007-2008
Research Statement

My research focuses on translation practice from Chinese into English and French from the 17th century to the present.

 

My main current interest is in the application of Digital Humanities methodologies in Translation Studies, especially historical research. The three areas that I am currently exploring are the use of corpora, bibliometrics, and network visualization tools. Bibliometrics and network visualization tools feature in my most recent RGC-supported study “Reconceptualizing Chinese-English Translator Networks in the Nineteenth Century.” You may visit the translator networks website as well as my CTT Director’s Blog for more information on how I think digital humanities and translation studies intersect.

 

One recent publication that draws upon some of these methods (mainly the use of corpora and bibliometrics) is my most recent monograph, Conceptualising China Through Translation (Manchester University Press 2023). This work focuses on a limited number of key concepts that, in their translation back and forth between English and Chinese, have not only shaped the way that China is perceived in the English-speaking world but also influenced the way in which the Chinese conceptualize themselves, their culture, and their nation. My article “How the Chinese lost ‘face’” (2013) was a first attempt at this approach, looking at the historical development of the conceptual pair “face/面子.” This work was partially funded by my GRF individual research grant 2016–2018.

 

In June 2017 I organized an international workshop that resulted in a special issue of the Journal of Translation Studies (June 2018) on Digital Humanities in Translation Studies, and in December 2023 the Centre for Translation Technology and the Research Centre for Translation hosted a large-scale international conference, “Translation Studies and Digital Humanities,” that attracted over forty participants.

 

My articles have tended first to adopt an historical approach, tracing the development over time of differing translation practices, as was the case in “Traveling Toward True Translation: The First Generation of Sino-English Translators.” (2006), “The Development of British Sinology and Changes in Translation Practice: The Case of Sir John Francis Davis (1795-1890)” (2007) and “Retranslation as Argument: Canon Formation, Professionalization, and Eivalry in 19th Century Sinological Translation” (2003), or evaluating the impact of particular translations within broader historical processes such as my “‘But do they have a notion of Justice?’ Staunton’s 1810 translation of the Penal Code.” (2004). I also, however, am interested in the theoretical implications of such translation practice; my first major article, “現在翻譯理論與過去翻譯實踐：以《好逑傳》的歐譯為例” (2000) looked at the intersection of historical and theoretical approaches in understanding two different translations of the novel 好逑傳 in English, using Walter Benjamin’s “Task of the Translator” as my point of departure. My first monograph, Translating China as Cross-Identity Performance (Hawai’i 2018), details my continued effort to examine both historical processes and theoretical models to explain both particular events and general trends in translation practice from the 17th to early 20th century. In this work I propose an umbrella term, cross-identity performance, to group together several metaphors to describe the translation process, including passing, blackface, whiteface, mimicry, drag, and masquerade. I then show how the use of these metaphors offers new insights into the history of Chinese-English translation over a period of almost three centuries.

 

Therefore I also have an abiding interest in the use of metaphors and other figures of speech to conceptualize translation. In this area I have an edited volume, Thinking through Translation with Metaphors (2010), an article “From Matchmaker and Waiter to Musician and Master Chef: Metaphors We Translators Live By” (2010), and an encyclopedia article “Metaphors of translation” (2011).

 

Translating China as Cross-Identity Performance demonstrates another perennial interest of mine, which is an exploration of the boundaries of translation studies, specifically material that is typically seen as peripheral, including relay translation (“Relay Translation” 2008), pseudo-translation (“Exploring the Role of Pseudo-translation in the History of Translation: Marryat’s Pacha of Many Tales” 2012) and , and heteroglossia in translation (“Revealing the Invisible: Heterolingualism in Three Generations of Singaporean Playwrights” 2006).

 

Finally, I have also published articles on general theoretical principles in Translation Studies, sometimes using Chinese case-studies to illustrate deficiencies in current Translation Theory, such as “Lessons from Chinese History: Translation as a Collaborative and Multi-stage Process” (2010), sometimes completely unrelated to China, including my award-winning “Revisiting Walter Benjamin’s ‘Task of the Translator’ in light of his Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism” (2011).
Publications

Monograph

  • Conceptualizing China Through Translation. Manchester, UK: University of Manchester Press, 2023.
  • Translation as Cross-Identity Performance, University of Hawai’i Press, 2018

Edited books

  • Translation and Time: Migration, Culture, and Identity. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2020.
  • With Peng Hsiao-yen. Transforming Knowledge through Translation: China and Its Others. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2012.
  • Thinking through Translation with Metaphors. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 2010.
  • With Lee Cheuk Yin and Lo Yuet Keung. Excursions in Sinology (Hanxue Zongheng). (In Chinese and English). Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 2002.

Edited volumes of translations

  • Yours Truly. (Writings by Singaporean Chinese in English Translation.) Singapore: Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore, 2003. Edited by St. Andre with an Introduction, pp 7-13.
  • K.I.V. (Writings by Singaporean Chinese in English Translation.) Singapore: Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore, 2003. Edited by St. Andre with an Introduction, pp ix-xii.
  • Droplets. (Writings by Singaporean Chinese in English Translation.) Singapore: Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore, 2002. Edited by St. Andre with an Introduction, pp. 13-21.

Articles

  • “The Translator as Cultural Ambassador: The Case of Lin Yutang,” In The Bloomsbury Handbook to Chinese Literature in Translation, edited by Cosima Bruno, Lucas Klein and Chris Song. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.

  • “Translation, Passing, and the Passing of Time.” In Translation and Time: Migration, Culture, and Identity, edited by James St. Andre, 27–39. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2020.

  • “Consequences of the Conflation of Xiao and Filial Piety in English.” Translation and Interpreting Studies 13.2 (Sept 2018): 293-316.

  • “A Cost-benefit Analysis of Using Online Corpora for Translation Research.” Journal of Translation Studies New series 2.1 (June 2018): 127-152.

  • “John Bradby Blake’s Multimedia Dictionary: FromWorldlist to Worldview.” Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 34 part 4 (Dec 2017): 323-58.

  • “Metaphors of Translation and Representations of the Translational Act as Solitary Versus Collaborative.” Translation Studies 10, no. 3 (June 2017): 282-295.
  • “How the Chinese lost ‘face’”. Journal of Pragmatics 55 (Sept 2013): 68-85.
  • “Sight and Sound: Representing the Chinese Language, 1630-1900.” In Representing the Chinese Chameleon: From the Jesuits to Zhang Yimou, edited by Yangwen Zheng, pp. 61-84. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, May 2013.
  • “Exploring the role of pseudo-translation in the history of translation: Marryat’s Pacha of Many Tales”. In China and Its Others: Transforming Knowledge through Translation: 1829-2010, edited by James St. Andre and Peng Hsiao-yen, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2012.
  • “Historical Specificity Versus Universal Applicability in Translation Studies”. Acta Universitatis Carolinae Philologica 2 (2011): 1-14.
  • “Revisiting Walter Benjamin’s ‘Task of the Translator’ in light of his Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism” TTR 24, no. 1 (2011): 103-24. Winner of the Vinay and Darbelnet Prize, awarded by the Canadian Association for Translation Studies.
  • “From Matchmaker and Waiter to Musician and Master Chef: Metaphors We Translators Live By”. In Other Words 36 (2010): 69-81.
  • “Lessons from Chinese History: Translation as a Collaborative and Multi-stage Process” TTR23, no. 1 (2010): 71-94.
  • “Translation as Cross-Identity Performance” in Thinking through Translation with Metaphors, Edited by James St. André, pp. 275-94. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 2010.
  • “Reading Court Cases from the Song and the Ming: Fact and Fiction, Law and Literature.” In Robert Hegel and Katy Carlitz, editors, Writing and Law in Late Imperial China: Crime, Conflict, and Judgment. St. Louis: Washington University Press, 2007: 189-214.
  • “The Development of British Sinology and Changes in Translation Practice: The Case of Sir John Francis Davis (1795-1890)” Translation and Interpreting Studies 2, no. 2 (Autumn 2007): 3-42.
  • “‘Long Time No See, Coolie’: Passing as Chinese through Translation.” In Translation and History, edited by Georges L. Bastin and Paul F. Bandia. Ottowa: University of Ottowa Press, 2006: 243-62.
  • “He ‘catch no ball’ leh! Globalisation versus localisation in the Singaporean translation market.” Meta 51, no. 4 (Dec 2006): 771-786.
  • “Revealing the Invisible: Heterolingualism in Three Generations of Singaporean Playwrights.” Target 18, no. 2 (2006): 139-61.
  • “Traveling Toward True Translation: The First Generation of Sino-English Translators.” The Translator 12, no. 2 (2006): 1-22.
  • “’You Can Never Go Home Again’: Cultural Memory and Identity Formation in the Writing of Southeast Asian Chinese”. Journal of Chinese Overseas 2, no. 1 (May 2006): 33-55.
  • “‘But do they have a notion of Justice?’ Staunton’s 1810 translation of the Penal Code.” The Translator 10, no. 1 (April 2004): 1-32.
    Reprinted in Critical Concepts: Translation Studies, 4 volumes, edited by Mona Baker, London & New York: Routledge. In press (2009).
  • “Retranslation as argument: canon formation, professionalization, and rivalry in 19th century Sinological translation.” Cadernos de Tradução 11, no. 1 (2003): 59-93.
  • “Picturing Judge Bao in Ming Fiction.” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 24 (2002): 43-73.
  • 現在翻譯理論與過去翻譯實踐：以《好逑傳》的歐譯為例 (“Modern translation theory and past translation practice: European translations of the Hao qiu zhuan”) in Chung-wai Literary Monthly 29, no. 5 (October 2000): 105-129.
    [English version published in Leo Chan Tak-hung, editor, One into Many: Translation and the Dissemination of Classical Chinese Literature. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2002, pp. 39-65.]

Review Articles

  • Review of Between Tongues. Translation and/of/in Performance in Asia, edited by Jennifer Lindsay. Target 21, no. 2 (2009): 403-5.
  • Review of “Borrowed Plumage”: Polemical Essays on Translation, by Eugene Eoyang. Target 17, no. 1 (2005): 186-89.
  • “Whither East-West Comparative Literature? Two Recent Answers from the U.S.” Bulletin of the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica, no. 22 (March 2003): 291-302.
  • Review of Mighty Opposites: From Dichotomies to Differences in the Comparative Study of China, by Zhang Longxi. Bulletin of the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica, 20 (March 2002): 604-610.
  • Review of Démons et marveilles dans la littérature Chinoise des Six Dynasties: le fantastique et l'anecdotique dans le sou Shen Ji de Gan Bao, by Rémi Mathieu. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 11, no. 2 (April 2001): 309-310.

Publications in conference proceedings

  • “Historicizing translation theory in the late Qing and early Republican period” Proceedings of the International Conference on Translation: East Asia and the West, National Taiwan Normal University, 3-5 Dec 2007. Taipei: Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, 2007, 285-307.
  • “Exploring the role of pseudo-translation in the history of translation: Marryat’s Pacha of Many Tales” Proceedings of the Workshop on China and Its Others: Knowledge Transfer and Representations of China and the West, Manchester, 28-29 June 2008. Manchester: Centre for Chinese Studies, 2008, 196-221.

Academic encyclopedia articles

  • “Metaphors of translation”. In Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer, eds., Handbook of Translation Studies, vol. 2, 84-87. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing, 2011.
  • “History of Translation.” Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. London: Routledge, 2008: 133-36.
  • “Relay Translation.” Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. London: Routledge, 2008: 230-32.

Other Publications

  • Contributor to Translation Studies Abstracts, online resource maintained by St. Jerome Publishing.
  • Translation of Yen Kun-yang, “Elegy for a Muddle-headed Fool.” The Chinese Pen 32 no. 4 (Winter 2004): 28-37.
  • Translation of Wang Ting-chun, “Cages, Compounds, and Silkworms.” The Chinese Pen 29 no. 3 (Autumn 2001): 72-77.
  • Translation of Li Yue, “Forgetting Cares.” The Chinese Pen 29 no. 1 (Spring 2001): 100-107.
Awards and Honors
  • Winner of the Vinay and Darbelnet Prize, awarded by the Canadian Association for Translation Studies, 2011 for “Revisiting Walter Benjamin’s ‘Task of the Translator’ in light of his Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism”
Conference/Workshop

    Conference/Workshop

    • Organizer, Translation Studies and the Digital Humanities, CUHK, Dec 2023
    • Co-Organizer, “A Space for Translation? Thresholds of Interpretation”, CUHK, Dec 2018
    • Organizer, “Translating Science Fiction, Translation in Science Fiction: Between Chinese and English”, CUHK, June 2018
    • Organizer, “Translation Studies and/in the Digital Humanities”, CUHK, June 2017
    • Co-Organizer, “Translation and Time: Exploring the Temporal Dimension of Cross-cultural Transfer”, CUHK, Dec 2016
    • Co-Organizer, “The Translation of Key Terms in Traditional and Modern China”, Academia Sinica, 2-3 January 2015
    • Co-Organizer, “China and Its Others”, AHRC-Academia Sinica Joint Research Grant, University of Manchester, 28-29 June 2008
    • Co-Organizer, “Evolving Cultural Memory in China and Southeast Asia”, National University of Singapore, July 2005
    • Selection Committee, Annual Conference for the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association, 2016

    Public Talk