On the Interpreter’s Multiple Roles and Subjectivity: A Case Study of Bao Peng

Zhen YUAN

Abstract


During the First Sino-British Opium War, Chinese interpreters were in great shortage, primarily owing to the Qing government’s indifference to training qualified interpreting talents. Those in temporary employment had complex identities and played a variety of roles besides interpreting. A case in point is Bao Peng. He is one of the most noticeable interpreters in China at the time. He played five roles that helped to enhance his subjectivity in interpreting, namely a comprador, a messenger, a mediator, a negotiator and an adaptor. In this paper I make a probe into the five roles of Bao Peng and how they interact with one another and collectively enhance his subjectivity as an interpreter. My conclusion is that under unusual circumstances like that of the First Opium War, an interpreter with multiple roles tends to have influence and the ability to manipulate the dialogues and negotiations he is interpreting for and thus give play to his subjectivity.

Keywords


Bao Peng; Multiple roles; Interpreter subjectivity; Sino-British negotiations; The First Opium War

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/13348

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