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The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire
An impressive new history of China's relations with the West--told through the lives of two language interpreters who participated in the famed Macartney embassy in 1793
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.
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.
345 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 9, 2021
31 people are currently reading
393 people want to read
About the author
Henrietta Harrison
11 books16 followersLibrarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
From: http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/staff/ea/c...
"I am a historian and my main interest is in what ordinary people’s lives have been like in China from the Qing dynasty until today. I am also enthusiastic about writing the kind of history that tells stories as well as making arguments. Both of my most recent books have been micro-histories and I have made extensive use of fieldwork in China, especially conducting oral history interviews and collecting village-level materials, as well as using more conventional archives and libraries.
My research has included the 1911 revolution, nationalism, Confucianism in the twentieth-century, Catholicism, interactions between China and Europe, and above all the history of Shanxi province. I have worked across different periods, writing two books about the early twentieth century, and one that is the story of a single village from 1700 to 2012, as well as several articles about the 1950s and 60s. My main current research is on the eighteenth century, with a focus on diplomacy and the social history of oral interpreting."
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
From: http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/staff/ea/c...
"I am a historian and my main interest is in what ordinary people’s lives have been like in China from the Qing dynasty until today. I am also enthusiastic about writing the kind of history that tells stories as well as making arguments. Both of my most recent books have been micro-histories and I have made extensive use of fieldwork in China, especially conducting oral history interviews and collecting village-level materials, as well as using more conventional archives and libraries.
My research has included the 1911 revolution, nationalism, Confucianism in the twentieth-century, Catholicism, interactions between China and Europe, and above all the history of Shanxi province. I have worked across different periods, writing two books about the early twentieth century, and one that is the story of a single village from 1700 to 2012, as well as several articles about the 1950s and 60s. My main current research is on the eighteenth century, with a focus on diplomacy and the social history of oral interpreting."
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 23, 2025
4.5/5
Przeczytane do doktoratu, ale oprócz tego naprawdę dobra książka o bardzo ważnych osobach w stosunkach międzynarodowych i historii. Tutaj akurat historii Chin oraz Imperium Brytyjskiego. Książka przedstawia rolę, którą tłumacze chińscy i brytyjscy odegrali w pierwszej misji dyplomatycznej rządu brytyjskiego do Chin okresu dynastii Qing. Po angielsku jest faktycznie niewiele szczegółowych informacji na temat chińskich tłumaczy pracujących dla Imperium Brytyjskiego, więc ta praca jest naprawdę wyjątkowa.
Przeczytane do doktoratu, ale oprócz tego naprawdę dobra książka o bardzo ważnych osobach w stosunkach międzynarodowych i historii. Tutaj akurat historii Chin oraz Imperium Brytyjskiego. Książka przedstawia rolę, którą tłumacze chińscy i brytyjscy odegrali w pierwszej misji dyplomatycznej rządu brytyjskiego do Chin okresu dynastii Qing. Po angielsku jest faktycznie niewiele szczegółowych informacji na temat chińskich tłumaczy pracujących dla Imperium Brytyjskiego, więc ta praca jest naprawdę wyjątkowa.
July 19, 2022
The title and subtitle suggest two very different books. I guess I was more interested in the title, while the book really focuses on the subtitle. I thought the book would be about, well, 'the perils of interpreting', covering the drama of translating the nuances of Chinese and English during a sensitive and unprecedented period of diplomacy between two dominant empires. However, it was more just a straight up biography of two people who happened to be interpreters. To most who would be interested in reading this book, the period is familiar and so the biographies don't add a lot of new or interesting information.
June 14, 2025
The Perils of Interpreting is a fascinating account by Harvard historian Henrietta Harrison, who explores a unique and overlooked history between the Qianlong Emperor and British Ambassador
to China Lord George Macartney during their 1793 meeting. This encounter between imperial China and Britain was a turning point in global history. Working on behalf of the British monarchy,
Macartney’s embassy was tasked with establishing and developing favorable commercial ties with imperial China and submitted a list of demands that which the Qianlong Emperor rejected.
to China Lord George Macartney during their 1793 meeting. This encounter between imperial China and Britain was a turning point in global history. Working on behalf of the British monarchy,
Macartney’s embassy was tasked with establishing and developing favorable commercial ties with imperial China and submitted a list of demands that which the Qianlong Emperor rejected.
September 22, 2024
看简介和封面以及引言，我原以为这是关于译者在朝廷做翻译时牵涉紧张刺激力拔千钧的影响两个大国关系的历史事件。
但其实很大篇幅是写一位白人译者和一位中国译者的一生，连插图大多是肖像图和住所建筑图（而不是我预想的翻译文件和奏折图片）。作者研究的文本可能主要是两位译者的日记和信件，特别是描写小斯当东的生活提供了非常多细节，实在太多太细，读得我索然无味。
这本书更适合当作小斯当东的传记。如果不是对小斯当东和李自标感兴趣，对鸦片战争比较了解的读者没有阅读这本书的必要了。
但其实很大篇幅是写一位白人译者和一位中国译者的一生，连插图大多是肖像图和住所建筑图（而不是我预想的翻译文件和奏折图片）。作者研究的文本可能主要是两位译者的日记和信件，特别是描写小斯当东的生活提供了非常多细节，实在太多太细，读得我索然无味。
这本书更适合当作小斯当东的传记。如果不是对小斯当东和李自标感兴趣，对鸦片战争比较了解的读者没有阅读这本书的必要了。
February 8, 2024
While poorly-titled (there being many much better examples of the perils faced by interpreters throughout history than these two men who lived long and comfortable lives), this was a fairly lively biographical narrative that combined a number of topics I find interesting, most saliently language and the historical context for understanding language. Harrison focuses on the somewhat anticlimactic events of early British diplomatic contact with China prior to the Opium War, taking two interpreters as her focus: a Chinese Catholic priest educated in Naples, and an English aristocrat taught the language as part of his father's eccentric curriculum. The story is presented as two biographies, extending through their lives up to and after the diplomatic mission that first brought them together.
There are a couple of interesting facets to Harrison's discussion, including the commonalities between Chinese and British society that made mutual recognition and even friendships possible, and the different imperial policies on both sides that caused friction for people caught between the two powers. One that struck me most was the contrast that Harrison sets up between the 'conciliatory' translations made by Staunton, Harrison's main character, and the literal translations made by Morrison, a key translator at the time whom Harrison set in a secondary role. Part of this contrast is the classical one between a literal translation -- finding words that are near-cognate between the languages and substituting them in order to try and convey the same statement -- and one that communicates the general idea of the statement in a comparably natural form for the other language. Literal translations are famously unnatural in the second language and often serve the recipient poorly -- Harrison explains that Morrison learnt Chinese as an adult and specifically for the purpose of translating the Bible, which he believed should not be paraphrased.
However, there is actually more to what Staunton and his tutor Li Zibiao were doing than just avoiding literal translation. In several cases, they were actively changing the meaning of the text being translated in order to make it more politically acceptable to the recipient. A good example is the translation of a communication from Emperor Qianlong, in which phrases referring to the English 'happily and respectfully submitting' were replaced with platitudes about the 'benevolence' of the English king. This is an example of translators acting as barriers to communication, refusing to communicate ideas because they know the ideas the speaker wishes to communicate are unacceptable to the intended recipient -- and indeed making choices in what they do say that have implications unacceptable to the speaker. Li Zibiao was even more faithless than this during the diplomatic negotiations, impudently adding a seventh point to the requests made by the ambassador, and then having to scramble to hide this fact when the point was addressed in the reply from the Emperor. In general these issues highlight why literal translation holds appeal, especially when a single interpreter handles both directions of communication: the translator's leeway to distort meaning is significant.
The book's narrative construction is good, and Harrison includes a wealth of biographical detail that helps enrich both the overall narrative and the image of the burgeoning British Empire as it began to reach across the world to meet with this foreign yet familiar state. The copy of this edition has some odd minor errors that suggest some editorial failures, but on the whole it is quite an easy read that deals well with sources across numerous different languages.
December 15, 2023
On the one hand, this is a fascinating book about two "regular" guys living at the end of the eighteenth and into the nineteenth century. What I mean by "regular" is that they were not rulers, or even hardly great politicians. It was really interesting to see how much source material there was to recreate the lives of these two individuals, Li Zibiao and George Thomas Staunton. And this biographical aspect of the book was quite an enjoyable read.
On the other hand, the book seems to want to say something about translation and politics/diplomacy. Here, it's not totally clear who the intended audience is. If it is aimed at a general audience, then the book needs a lot more historical-contextual information to help us understand what is going on in the world that these two men are engaging with. If it is aimed at a more scholarly audience, then I fear the book falls a little flat, as I don't think the author's thesis is supported with enough evidence. She keeps telling us that the role of interpreter/translator was dangerous, but I can only remember one really good example where she shows the threat to an interpreter. There might have been a couple more examples, but I remain a bit unconvinced. What she has to say about the nature of translation and its role in diplomacy, especially in that age, is interesting, though.
I'm glad I read this book, but I'm not sure I could recommend it to others.
Let me just add, however, that the author's work on this book and its sources was impressive to me. She appears to know both Latin and Chinese, two languages that I study regularly but cannot claim any real level of fluency in. So, bravo for that!
On the other hand, the book seems to want to say something about translation and politics/diplomacy. Here, it's not totally clear who the intended audience is. If it is aimed at a general audience, then the book needs a lot more historical-contextual information to help us understand what is going on in the world that these two men are engaging with. If it is aimed at a more scholarly audience, then I fear the book falls a little flat, as I don't think the author's thesis is supported with enough evidence. She keeps telling us that the role of interpreter/translator was dangerous, but I can only remember one really good example where she shows the threat to an interpreter. There might have been a couple more examples, but I remain a bit unconvinced. What she has to say about the nature of translation and its role in diplomacy, especially in that age, is interesting, though.
I'm glad I read this book, but I'm not sure I could recommend it to others.
Let me just add, however, that the author's work on this book and its sources was impressive to me. She appears to know both Latin and Chinese, two languages that I study regularly but cannot claim any real level of fluency in. So, bravo for that!
September 23, 2025
The book explores the lives of two interpreters, Li Zibiao and George Thomas Staunton, and how their work shaped the diplomatic relationship between Britain and China. While one of the main focus is to examine the role of translation and interpretation in political negotiations and cross-cultural understanding, the author also delivers a deeply researched and vivid portrayal of these two men—from their childhood to their final days.
As a translator and interpreter myself, I find it fascinating to explore how individuals in the 18th century were trained for the profession. The book offers valuable insights into their methods of language acquisition, their approaches to translation, and the social roles they occupied. It was especially intriguing to see how interpreters were perceived and treated during that time.
For instance, one particularly striking detail was the Qing court’s provision of a sedan chair for Li Zibiao, alongside Macartney and George Leonard, during their journey to Beijing. This gesture underscored the formal status of interpreters within the Qing bureaucracy, where languages such as Chinese, Manchu, and Mongolian were routinely translated. In contrast to that, later in the book, it was rather saddening to see how George Thomas Staunton—despite his deep knowledge of Chinese language and culture—was dismissed by his contemporaries.
In addition, the author also presents a fascinating comparison between Staunton’s and Robert Morrison’s translation styles, revealing how their differing backgrounds and social positions shaped their linguistic choices and philosophies.
Overall, I found it engaging to learn about the lives of Li Zibiao and George Thomas Staunton. The author’s deep research and vivid storytelling brought these historical figures to life. As a translator and interpreter myself, I truly appreciate how the book shed light on the significance of the profession through the lens of history.
As a translator and interpreter myself, I find it fascinating to explore how individuals in the 18th century were trained for the profession. The book offers valuable insights into their methods of language acquisition, their approaches to translation, and the social roles they occupied. It was especially intriguing to see how interpreters were perceived and treated during that time.
For instance, one particularly striking detail was the Qing court’s provision of a sedan chair for Li Zibiao, alongside Macartney and George Leonard, during their journey to Beijing. This gesture underscored the formal status of interpreters within the Qing bureaucracy, where languages such as Chinese, Manchu, and Mongolian were routinely translated. In contrast to that, later in the book, it was rather saddening to see how George Thomas Staunton—despite his deep knowledge of Chinese language and culture—was dismissed by his contemporaries.
In addition, the author also presents a fascinating comparison between Staunton’s and Robert Morrison’s translation styles, revealing how their differing backgrounds and social positions shaped their linguistic choices and philosophies.
Overall, I found it engaging to learn about the lives of Li Zibiao and George Thomas Staunton. The author’s deep research and vivid storytelling brought these historical figures to life. As a translator and interpreter myself, I truly appreciate how the book shed light on the significance of the profession through the lens of history.
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November 4, 2024It's said in the intro that one of the main pillars of the book was Qing China's response to British naval threat. Aside from the chapter on the occupation of Macao, it's NOT mentioned whatsoever. Additionally, the author made the choice of turning this into something more akin to a novel than an essay, so one would think the target audience is broad. However, major historical context is only briefly mentioned, narrowing the audience down to academics. As for the characters, the main point of the book, Staunton is clearly more indepthly discussed. There was a lot of very good documentation on Li Zibiao in the earlier chapters, yet he's forgotten of in the third and fourth parts.
February 9, 2025
🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕
好精彩好有趣的书！在那么多有关清史的书籍当中，这本书的视角独树一帜：通过英国马戛尔尼使团访清近距离观察使团当中的两位翻译，并从这两位译者的人生经历勾勒出从乾隆末年到鸦片战争的清英关系。
有意思的是，当年的成为译者的很多人，之所以会外语，大多是因为宗教的影响，需要学会外语去神学院学习、并且以后肩负传教的任务。清方译者李自标，精通拉丁语意大利语和英语，正是因为他是天主教徒、在那不勒斯就读神学院，之后要回中国传教。
而当时的使团深知译者担任的不只是「翻译」的角色，更因为他们能听懂双方的语言、了解彼此的文化，可能会在翻译过程当中有立场的取舍，所以特地选择跟英国没有关系的、会外语的中国人来担任翻译。而清英两方译者也因为掌握双方信息而在翻译中谨慎小心地「斡旋」，可能常常为自己带来危险。(比如「蛮夷」一词，应当译为 barbarian 还是 foreigner?)
英方译者小斯当东，当年在乾隆面前大展汉语身手的小男孩，最终多年以后进入英国议会，在是否应该发起鸦片战争的表决中，投下了赞成票。这段历史正是 Imperial Twilight 里描绘过的那段！但读过这本书就会了解他为何做出这样的选择。历史就这样连起来了。
作者在书中不断展示，翻译的工作不仅仅是把一种语言转换成另一种语言。出色的译者，更懂得首先去了解彼此的文化，建立彼此能够沟通的理解与信任，这样才能向对方阐释自己。不能认同更多。
好精彩好有趣的书！在那么多有关清史的书籍当中，这本书的视角独树一帜：通过英国马戛尔尼使团访清近距离观察使团当中的两位翻译，并从这两位译者的人生经历勾勒出从乾隆末年到鸦片战争的清英关系。
有意思的是，当年的成为译者的很多人，之所以会外语，大多是因为宗教的影响，需要学会外语去神学院学习、并且以后肩负传教的任务。清方译者李自标，精通拉丁语意大利语和英语，正是因为他是天主教徒、在那不勒斯就读神学院，之后要回中国传教。
而当时的使团深知译者担任的不只是「翻译」的角色，更因为他们能听懂双方的语言、了解彼此的文化，可能会在翻译过程当中有立场的取舍，所以特地选择跟英国没有关系的、会外语的中国人来担任翻译。而清英两方译者也因为掌握双方信息而在翻译中谨慎小心地「斡旋」，可能常常为自己带来危险。(比如「蛮夷」一词，应当译为 barbarian 还是 foreigner?)
英方译者小斯当东，当年在乾隆面前大展汉语身手的小男孩，最终多年以后进入英国议会，在是否应该发起鸦片战争的表决中，投下了赞成票。这段历史正是 Imperial Twilight 里描绘过的那段！但读过这本书就会了解他为何做出这样的选择。历史就这样连起来了。
作者在书中不断展示，翻译的工作不仅仅是把一种语言转换成另一种语言。出色的译者，更懂得首先去了解彼此的文化，建立彼此能够沟通的理解与信任，这样才能向对方阐释自己。不能认同更多。
June 1, 2025
A little dry and confusingly written in places, but overall very thorough and interesting.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews