Occidentalism and translation studies as academic discourse
This study aims la explore Occidentalism - the essentialist renderings of the West - as an intellectual and (or) political trend in modem Chinese society, and in particular to investigate whether, and if so, how, to what extent, and why stylised images of the West in contrast with those of China are manifested in Chinese translation scholars' theoretical discourses. I have answered these questions by doing case studies on some translation scholars and analysing their theoretical discourses produced in certain soda-political and historical circumstances. This thesis argues that what these scholars think and write about the West and how they visualize the Chinese-Western cultural relationship are at the hcal1 of their discourses, and various notions of the West vs. China in the antagonistic debates in Chinese translation studi.es are often employed to accomplish certain tasks. Among these are: to preserve tradition and assert identity against the West; to resonate with the state doctrines; to adopt the Western mode of producing knowledge clue to a strong sense of ~self-insufficiency~; to win power by engaging with their Western counterparts; or to be a way of asserting other positions vis-a.-vis the Chinese-
Gu, Lingzhi
Occidentalism and translation studies as academic discourse. This study aims la explore Occidentalism - the essentialist renderings of the West - as an intellectual and (or) political trend in modem Chinese society, and in particular to investigate whether, and if so, how, to what extent, and why stylised images of the West in contrast with those of China are manifested in Chinese translation scholars' theoretical discourses. I have answered these questions by doing case studies on some translation scholars and analysing their theoretical discourses produced in certain soda-political and historical circumstances. This thesis argues that what these scholars think and write about the West and how they visualize the Chinese-Western cultural relationship are at the hcal1 of their discourses, and various notions of the West vs. China in the antagonistic debates in Chinese translation studi.es are often employed to accomplish certain tasks. Among these are: to preserve tradition and assert identity against the West; to resonate with the state doctrines; to adopt the Western mode of producing knowledge clue to a strong sense of ~self-insufficiency~; to win power by engaging with their Western counterparts; or to be a way of asserting other positions vis-a.-vis the Chinese-
translation_study academic_discourse study aim_explore essentialist rendering west intellectual_political trend modem chinese society particular investigate_whether extent image west contrast china manifest chinese_translation scholar theoretical discourse answered question case_study translation scholar analyse theoretical discourse produce certain soda political historical circumstance argues scholar think write west chinese western cultural relationship discourse various notion west china antagonistic debate chinese_translation study often_employ accomplish certain task among preserve tradition assert identity west resonate state doctrine adopt western mode produce knowledge clue strong_sense self insufficiency win power engage western counterpart way assert position vis_a_vis chinese