An American Pioneer of Chinese Studies in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Benjamin Bowen Carter as an Agent of Global Knowledge

Series: 

Author:
Man Shun Yeung
Benjamin Bowen Carter (1771-1831), one of the first Americans to speak and read Chinese, studied Chinese in Canton and advocated its use in diplomacy decades before America established a formal relationship with China. Drawing on rediscovered manuscripts, this book reconstructs Carter’s multilingual learning experience, reveals how he helped translate a diplomatic document into Chinese, describes his interactions with European sinologists, and traces his attempts to convince the US government and American academics of the practical and cultural value of Chinese studies. The cross-cultural perspective employed in this book emphasizes the reciprocal dynamics of Carter’s relationships with Chinese and European “others,” while Carter’s story itself forces a rewriting of the earliest years of US-China relations.
Copyright Year:
2021
E-Book (PDF)
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-49896-9
Publication:
05 Oct 2021
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-49895-2
Publication:
07 Oct 2021
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Yeung Man Shun, D.Litt (2000), Kyoto University, is Assistant Professor of Chinese History and Culture at the University of Hong Kong. He has recently published articles and book chapters on China-West historical relations and late imperial Chinese history.
"Yeung Man Shun’s important new study establishes Carter’s place within the annals of American Sinology, while also throwing new light on other important topics, including the more active field of British Chinese Studies in the early 1800s... The extensive appendices and reproductions of primary material referred to in the main text round out a volume that makes numerous important contributions to the history of global knowledge. Combining the qualities of biography, intellectual history, and the study of cross-cultural exchange, it will prove immensely valuable to scholars working in a variety of fields."
-Edward Weech, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3 (2022).
Acknowledgments
Appendixes
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations

1 On the Linguistic Frontier in Canton
 A Cross-Cultural Approach to Language Learning
 1.1 The Earliest Glimmer of Chinese Studies in America
 1.2 Recovering Carter’s Story: Perspectives and Approaches
 1.3 Learning the Language of the Other: The Place of Chinese Studies in Europe and America

2 Finding a Calling
 Carter’s Transcontinental Journey to Chinese Studies
 2.1 Restless in America: Family and Early Life
 2.2 Opportunities in China: 1798–1806
 2.3 Fulfillment in Europe and Disappointment at Home: 1806–1831
 2.4 From Curiosity to a Lifelong Pursuit

3 Reconstructing a Personalized Curriculum
 Textbooks, Dictionaries, and Study Notes
 3.1 Learning Chinese the Chinese Way
 3.2 From Linguistic Translation to Cultural Translation
 3.3 Entering the Chinese World: Carter’s Chinoiserie Letter to Conseequa

4 Chinese Instructors and Their Anglophone Students
 A Reappraisal
 4.1 Learning Chinese in Canton and Macao
 4.2 Abel Yen and His Anglophone Students
 4.3 Language Instructor as Diplomatic Translator
 4.4 The American Consul Wishes for an Interpreter

5 Agent of Global Knowledge: Carter in London, Paris, and New York
 5.1 Career Ambition: Consul Interpreter
 5.2 An Early American Encounter with European Sinology
 5.3 Academic Ambition: University Educator

6 The Rise of American Chinese Studies: Changes in Foreign Policy, Academic Foci, and American Perceptions of China
 6.1 Carter’s View of China and the Chinese
 6.2 American Curiosity about Chinese Knowledge
 6.3 The Missionary Roots of the American Sinological Tradition
 6.4 The Interpreter as Diplomat
 6.5 America’s First Course in Chinese Studies
 6.6 The Chinese Language: Barrier or Gateway?
 6.7 The Treasures in the Cushing Collection

7 Concluding Remarks: Carter in Perspective
 7.1 The Origin of Chinese Studies in America: An Alternative Pathway
 7.2 Teaching and Learning Chinese in China at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century
 7.3 Creation, Exchange, and Circulation of Chinese Knowledge on a Global Scale
 7.4 Cross-Cultural Dialogues: Carter, the Canton Dialect, and Contemporary China-America Relations

Appendix
Bibliography
Index
Language teachers and learners, educators, academic, sinologists, archivists, historians, linguists, translators, diplomats, academic libraries, (post-graduate) students, book lovers, cultural theorists, Chinese and American general readers
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