Triangular Translation: Interpreting Nahdawi Literary Production on China By Peiyu Yang A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Institute of Islamic Studies McGill University May 2019 © Peiyu Yang 2019 All Rights Reserved. 2 Dedicated to my parents and Fei 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................4 RÉSUMÉ....................................................................................................................................5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.......................................................................................................6 NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION...........................................................................................10 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................11 CHAPTER 1 Ghadat al-Sin: Translational Practice in a 19th-Century Arabic Novel About China..............................................................................................................45 CHAPTER 2 From Monster to Queen Victoria: Arabic Biography and the Empress Dowager of China.........................................................................................................91 CHAPTER 3 Translating the Chinese Constitutional Revolution in Arabic Literary Journals........................................................................................................132 CHAPTER 4 Za’ir al-Sin: Translating a Chinese Anti-colonial Struggle for a Nahdawi Context...........................................................................................................167 CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................................210 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................219 4 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines late 19th- and early 20th-century Arabic literary texts on China to challenge the Eurocentric scholarly assumption that writers in the Nahda period drew their models of modernity solely from Europe. Surviving only in fragmented and unexplored archives, a large body of Nahdawi literature set in China offers a new stage for understanding the political and social discourses that constituted Arab modernity projects. While existing understandings of the Nahda have emphasized the emergence of sovereign nation-states modelled on European countries, the aspirations that emerge from Nahdawi novels, journalism, biographies, and theatre focused on China define modernity as a process of establishing transnational, south-south relations. Nahdawis wrote about China not by reading Chinese works directly, but by translating European Orientalist sources on China into Arabic. This circuit of textual exchange requires a new analytic for unpacking the multi-lingual layers of mediation involved in Arabic interest in China. This dissertation develops the concept of “triangular translation” as an analytic to explore these contours. By contrast to the standard paradigm that views translation as a bi-directional transaction between two languages, Nahdawi literary texts dealing with China retain a trace of at least three linguistic layers: the original Chinese, Orientalist renderings in European languages, and translation into Arabic. Triangular translation as a model allows for the exploration of the possibilities that these deep textual elements opened up for staging questions in Arabic about constitutional reform and gender equality through the language of ethnographic engagement with Chinese culture. Shifting the mastery of the western gaze away from the Arab world, triangular translation shows a way to analyze how Arab culture redeploys that gaze in relation to the rest of the world, for specific political and cultural purposes tied to the establishment of a transnational regional identity. 5 RÉSUMÉ Cette thèse analyse des textes littéraires arabes de la fin du XIXe - début du XXe siècle portant sur la Chine afin de défier le présupposé académique eurocentrique considérant que les auteurs de la Nahda empruntèrent leur modèle de la modernité uniquement à l'Europe. Survivant seulement sous la forme d'archives fragmentaires et inexplorées, un important corpus de littérature Nahdawi prenant place en Chine offre une nouvelle perspective à la compréhension des discours politiques et sociaux qui constituèrent les projets de modernité arabes. Alors que les conceptions existantes de la Nahda ont mis l'accent sur l'émergence d'états-nations souverains modelés sur les pays européens, les aspirations qui émergent des romans, articles journalistiques, biographies et des pièces de théâtre Nahdawi se focalisant sur la Chine définissent la modernité comme un processus d'établissement de relations transnationales, de coopération Sud-Sud. Les Nahdawis écrivirent sur la Chine, non en lisant directement des œuvres écrites en chinois, mais en traduisant en arabe des sources orientalistes européennes portant sur la Chine. Ce circuit d'échanges textuels requiert une nouvelle analytique afin d'éplucher les couches multilingues de médiation impliquées par l'intérêt arabe envers la Chine. Cette thèse développe le concept de "traduction triangulaire" en guise d'analytique visant à explorer ces contours. En contraste avec le paradigme standard percevant la traduction comme une transaction bidirectionnelle entre deux communautés linguistiques, les textes littéraires Nahdawi traitant de la Chine portent la trace d'au moins trois couches linguistiques: celle originale en chinois, son rendu orientaliste en langues européennes et sa traduction en arabe. La traduction triangulaire, en tant que modèle, permet l'exploration des possibilités que ces éléments textuels profonds ouvrent à la mise en perspective des questionnements arabes sur la réforme constitutionnelle et l'égalité des sexes par le truchement du langage de l'engagement ethnographique vis-à-vis de la culture chinoise. En contrebalançant de diverses manières la prépondérance du regard occidental sur le monde arabe, la traduction triangulaire montre comment la culture arabe redéploye ce regard vis-à-vis du reste du monde, à des fins politiques et culturelles spécifiques en lien avec l'établissement d'une identité régionale transnationale. 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Pursuing a PhD program is a long journey and mine could not have been completed without the guidance, encouragement and support that I received from my instructors, family and friends. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to them in the following words. I would also like to thank the Institute of Islamic Studies and the faculty of Arts at McGill University for providing me financial support. I am extremely grateful to my supervisor Prof Michelle Hartman, who is simply the best supervisor that I can envision in this world. Over the last six years, she has always been standing by my side, supporting me and guiding me as an intellectual and as a human being. I started the program with many initial difficulties and was far behind my colleagues. She trusted my potentials and encouraged me to explore them for myself, challenging and inspiring me, and offering an extraordinary understanding of the difficulties facing international and first-generation students. Through her patience and brilliance, she set a model for me. My ongoing efforts to live up to that model have transformed me from struggling with my program and experiencing anxiety in public speaking to a more solid student, teacher, and person. To me, she is not only a supervisor, but also a role model, a friend, and my second mother. The Institute of Islamic Studies’ faculty is incredible in having many such wonderful teachers whose generous guidance has shaped this project. Professors Rula and Malek Abisaab have not only encouraged me at every step of the way, but have devoted a great deal of time and energy to digging through primary texts with me and sharpening my translations. I could not have written this dissertation, particularly Chapter One, without the help of Professor Pasha M. Khan, whose brilliance and kindness have increased my confidence in this project and myself. Ever since my comps, Professor Laila Parsons, along with Professor Robert Wisnovsky, fueled this dissertation with practical wisdom and friendly encouragement that made it possible for me to undertake the research. Professor Setrag Manoukian, Professor Khalid Medani and Professor Prashant Keshavmurthy offered timely encouragement and moral support that made me feel very fortunate to be studying at McGill. Zeitun Manjothi and Adina Sigartau expertly ensured that things ran smoothly each day and made everything possible. The forensic skills of Anaïs Salamon, who helped me track down key texts, transformed this project from an impossible idea into a reality. TAing for Hala Jawlakh, Shokry Gohar, and David Nancekivell offered me a valuable introduction to teaching and improved my Arabic tenfold! They have each, in their own way, been a trusted adviser and role model to me for starting out in the profession and balancing the tasks of teaching and research. I am very grateful for their friendship and guidance. I have been incredibly fortunate in having a group of colleagues at McGill whose close friendship and intellectual community has been irreplaceable. Pauline Froissart