The 1793 British embassy to China, which led to Lord George Macartney’s fraught encounter with the Qianlong emperor, has often been viewed as a clash of cultures fueled by the East’s disinterest in the West. In The Perils of Interpreting, Henrietta Harrison presents a more nuanced picture, ingeniously shifting the historical lens to focus on Macartney’s two interpreters at that meeting—Li Zibiao and George Thomas Staunton. Who were these two men? How did they intervene in the exchanges that they mediated? And what did these exchanges mean for them? From Galway to Chengde, and from political intrigues to personal encounters, Harrison reassesses a pivotal moment in relations between China and Britain. She shows that there were Chinese who were familiar with the West, but growing tensions endangered those who embraced both cultures and would eventually culminate in the Opium Wars.
Harrison demonstrates that the Qing court’s ignorance about the British did not simply happen, but was manufactured through the repression of cultural go-betweens like Li and Staunton. She traces Li’s influence as Macartney’s interpreter, the pressures Li faced in China as a result, and his later years in hiding. Staunton interpreted successfully for the British East India Company in Canton, but as Chinese anger grew against British imperial expansion in South Asia, he was compelled to flee to England. Harrison contends that in silencing expert voices, the Qing court missed an opportunity to gain insights that might have prevented a losing conflict with Britain.
Uncovering the lives of two overlooked figures, The Perils of Interpreting offers an empathic argument for cross-cultural understanding in a connected world.
Awards and Recognition
- Shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize, McGill University
- Shortlisted for the Kenshur Prize, Bloomington Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Henrietta Harrison is professor of modern Chinese studies at the University of Oxford and the Stanley Ho Tutorial Fellow in Chinese History at Pembroke College. Her books include The Man Awakened from Dreams and The Missionary’s Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village. She lives in Oxford, England.
"Harrison could not have picked two more fascinating men to focus her book on. . . . not only is The Perils of Interpreting an empathetic portrait of two men, it also deftly reveals the critical importance of translation and of interpreters for without them neither cross-cultural interactions nor cross-cultural understanding can even begin."—Sarah Bramao-Ramos, History Today
"Fascinating."—Peter Neville-Hadley, South China Morning Post Magazine
"Often the most readable books on Chinese history are those that use detailed accounts of the lives of individuals to illuminate the great events of their time. Oxford professor Henrietta Harrison’s The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire is a fine example, providing a fresh description of the 1793 embassy from Britain’s King George III to the Manchu Qianlong emperor through the eyes of those who mediated, rather than those of the principals."—Peter Neville-Hadley, South China Morning Post
"Brilliantly researched."—John Krich, Nikkei Asia
“This is a story about two interpreters, but it is so much more than that. The Perils of Interpreting is a powerful and deeply original exploration of two major empires, China and Britain, and the ways they understood each other. Bringing together a sweeping perspective of the Chinese-British encounter with empathetic portraits of the individuals involved, this book is essential reading for historians of China and Europe alike.”—Rana Mitter, author of Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937–1945
“Brilliantly researched and beautifully written, The Perils of Interpreting looks at the mirrored, intertwining lives of interpreters George Thomas Staunton and Li Zibiao. This is one of the most eye-opening books I have ever read on the early era of Chinese-British relations.”—Stephen R. Platt, author of Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age
“Harrison’s multifaceted archival analysis adds a humanistic touch to the history of intercultural politics and shows that the more interpreters understand, the more suspicious they appear. The choices and influence of the Macartney embassy’s interpreters shaped not only their own fates, but also the historical narratives of Chinese-British relations, then and now.”—May Bo Ching, City University of Hong Kong
“This is a wonderful and important book. Providing a wholly new and poignant lens on one of the most famous episodes in the history of Sino-British relations, it focuses on the roles and lives of the translators who made communication between Qing China and Britain possible. Harrison offers extraordinarily rich and moving insights into the interactions between the Chinese and British governments, and the enormous challenges of promoting understanding and dialogue between geographically remote languages and cultures.”—Julia Lovell, author of Maoism: A Global History
“The Perils of Interpreting takes a brilliant historical look at cross-cultural experiences and friendship. Harrison narrates the meeting between a Chinese man who learned Latin in Europe and a young Englishman who learned Chinese while working in China. Their fascinating story of being between two cultures and the dangers in interpreting them is all the more topical now, and their experiences remind us of the vital importance of language and translation in the understanding of cultures today.”—Nicolas Standaert, author of The Interweaving of Rituals: Funerals in the Cultural Exchange between China and Europe
