{"id":939,"date":"2026-03-06T14:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T14:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/?p=939"},"modified":"2026-03-06T14:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T14:56:16","slug":"contested-ideals-of-translation-in-the-early-sino-european-canton-trade-1550-1650-by-dr-jacob-fordham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2026\/03\/06\/contested-ideals-of-translation-in-the-early-sino-european-canton-trade-1550-1650-by-dr-jacob-fordham\/","title":{"rendered":"Contested ideals of translation in the early Sino-European Canton trade, 1550\u20131650, by Dr Jacob Fordham"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This week, Dr Jacob Fordham (London School of Economics) gave a brilliant talk about translations and translators in the context of trade in south China in the 16th<\/sup> and 17th<\/sup> centuries. He asked: How can we write the history of translators known only elusively through the judgements of others? Can we historicise the terms by which we judge translation? The Pearl River Delta \u2018linguists\u2019 (\u901a\u4e8b or juruba\u00e7as), translator-interpreters between Chinese and Portuguese trained in Macau and Canton, were the primary linguistic and commercial mediators of early modern trade between China and Europeans. Yet we know of them primarily through condemnations of them in an archive formed of judicial and commercial disputes. The burden of nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship, as well the modern ideal of the neutral and disinterested translator, have meant that they have often been understood anachronistically as corrupt and self-serving, a subversive problem to be solved. Dr Fordham suggested an alternative reading set against the backdrop of a wider debate over public interest and office, and of the ethical value of private interest and the pursuit of profit. The linguists were framed through a language alien to modern translation theory, inseparable from human agency and motives. Understanding early modern translation by its own standards in this way pushes us to rethink the terms of early Sino-Western entanglements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can read more about his work here: https:\/\/ora.ox.ac.uk\/objects\/uuid:a330f561-4bc7-481a-98ab-6cf9c0ccf2eb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, Dr Jacob Fordham (London School of Economics) gave a brilliant talk about translations and translators in the context of trade in south China in the 16th and 17th centuries. He asked: How can we write the history of translators known only elusively through the judgements of others? Can we historicise the terms by which we judge translation? The …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notes-from-the-archive","column","threecol"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9DnLX-f9","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":369,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2019\/03\/06\/interview-with-recent-phd-graduate-dr-louise-fairbrother\/","url_meta":{"origin":939,"position":0},"title":"Interview with recent PhD graduate, Dr Louise Fairbrother","author":"Jonathan Hunt","date":"6th March 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"What was the subject of your research? My research looked in detail at how the town governments of Southampton and various other English towns organised their industry and trade in the sixteenth century.\u00a0 It focussed specifically on the way in which they controlled the groups involved.\u00a0 In Southampton\u2019s case, this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Meet the Department"","block_context":{"text":"Meet the Department","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/category\/meet-the-department\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2019\/03\/Picture1-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":340,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2019\/01\/28\/translating-darwin-translating-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":939,"position":1},"title":"Translating Darwin, Translating History","author":"Eve Colpus","date":"28th January 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The history of science and of scientific knowledge offers lessons in many ways of thinking about the world we live in, past and present, scientific and beyond. Katalin Straner, Lecturer in Modern European History at Southampton, is writing a book on the translation and reception of Darwinism and evolutionary theory\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes from the archive"","block_context":{"text":"Notes from the archive","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/category\/notes-from-the-archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2019\/01\/Postcard-300x184.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":950,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2026\/04\/23\/prof-craig-lamberts-keynote-lecture-at-a-conference-of-the-the-british-commission-for-maritime-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":939,"position":2},"title":"Prof. Craig Lambert’s keynote lecture at a conference of the The British Commission for Maritime History","author":"Elisabeth Forster","date":"23rd April 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"On the 17-18th\u00a0April we were proud to host The British Commission for Maritime History at the University of Southampton for their 31st\u00a0\u2018New Researchers in Maritime History\u2019 Conference. 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It has received rave reviews and was described by William Dalrymple (among others) as \u2018one of the most fascinating and important works of global\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes from the archive"","block_context":{"text":"Notes from the archive","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/category\/notes-from-the-archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/11\/Quinn-Cover-9781526605184-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/11\/Quinn-Cover-9781526605184-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/11\/Quinn-Cover-9781526605184-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/11\/Quinn-Cover-9781526605184-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":941,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions\/941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}