Negotiating Religious Gaps ― The Enterprise of Translating Christian Tracts by Protestant Missionaries in Nineteenth-century China

This study examines the translation of Christian tracts from English into Chinese by Protestant missionaries to China in the second half of the 19th century. The study is focused on the ways in which missionaries approached China in translation, rather than issues of Chinese reception, and missionary agendas, strategies, and debates over presenting Christianity in Chinese are thus the central concern. The study examines the choices of Christian texts selected for translation, the institutional policies and ideological factors that influenced the selection and translation of texts, the intended audiences for missionary translations, how translators sought to negotiate cultural and religious differences in their work, the relative influence of institutional policies and socio-cultural circumstances in China on the work of translation, the role of Chinese collaborators in translation, and how widespread the translated tracts were distributed through China. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)