Translation and the Rise of Cinematic Knowledge in Chinese Periodical Press, 1890s-1920s

This project explores the role of translation in the rise of cinematic knowledge in Chinese periodical press in the period 1890s-1920s. By “cinematic knowledge” I refer to forms of understanding ranging from crude facts, raw information, technical expertise to abstract theories of cinema. Current historical studies on early Chinese cinema focus on factual reconstruction of early film screening, production and reception, whereas the intellectual aspect - accumulation and dissemination of initial knowledge about cinema - remains under-studied. To fill this gap, the project surveys translations in periodicals that transmitted cinematic knowledge and outlines the intellectual history of early Chinese cinema. The research idea stems from the assumptions that translation was a pivotal mode of knowledge production at this time and space, and that in China informed discussions about cinema began in newspapers and magazines around 1900, which preceded book-form film scholarship by decades. My inquiry concerns what knowledge about cinema was introduced through translation in periodicals, what circumscribed such happenings, what sources the knowledge possibly came from, and what characterized the translations and translators that transmitted the knowledge. The project adopts analytical frameworks in history of knowledge and translation studies, and engages the use of Chinese periodical databases and network analysis tool(s). The collected translation data undergo several connected analyses. First, I read the translations with concurrent periodical writings to identify relevant knowledge-producing sites (publishers, film studios, etc.) and neighbor knowledge(s) of the cinema (drama, photography, optics and radiography, etc.). Second, I track the sources of translations, compare translations to verified sources to identify textual characteristics, and integrate source-less translations to further describe features in appropriation. Source-less translations – common phenomena back then – are also discussed in connection to the largely anonymous mass of translators to nuance the nature and role of translation. Periodical translators of known identities and high influence are then sampled for focus study to further reveal dynamics between translation, periodical press and the rise in cinematic knowledge. Finally, key translations are contrasted to Chinese film theories up to the 1940s for mapping internal (dis)continuities within Chinese film scholarship. Integrating multi-pronged analyses and exhibiting outcomes in open-access digital repository with a navigable network graph, I demonstrate that in Chinese periodical press in the 1890s-1920s, translation functioned as a dynamic mechanism which on the one hand popularized crowd production of cinematic knowledge and on the other stimulated specialization and theorization of the art and craft of cinema.

Funding Source: RGC - General Research Fund (GRF)