Thorsten J. Pattberg (裴德思) explains Xi Jinping’s Dreams of De-Westernization, the Zhongguo Meng (“Chinese dream”), the marketplace for Chinese words, the competition for terminologies, and in particular the liberalization of Chinese key terminologies in global writings. Despite understandable anxiety and resistance from Western politicians, professors, and journalists, and attempts by Western publishers, news desks, and editorials to keep the English language “pure” and “unpolluted,” the Chinese people (just everyone else) must stand up and assert themselves, their names, brands and ideas. Transcript: […] my point is: Political theorist from Berlin to Paris, from London to Washington are now learning Chinese, if they want it or not. The timing for introducing Chinese archetypes, categories, and taxonomies on a global scale could not be better: Xi Jinping, the President of China, is personally promoting the Zhongguo meng or "Chinese Dream" and promised to rejuvenate the Chinese culture. Mr. Xi didn't explicitly mention the protection of Chinese words, and neither did the Ministry of Education or Hanban, The Office of Chinese Language (which propagates and finances Chinese culture overseas through its well-known 'Confucius Institutes'). Teaching Chinese Language and promoting certain Chinese key terminologies are, after all, two different things. Still, while Xi Jinping keeps his ideas about 'Cultural China' deliberately vague (e. g. take any Western concept and add "with Chinese characteristics", as in 'Socialism with Chinese characteristics'), Chinese artists, writers, and entrepreneur meanwhile have taken their chances at writing history, literally: They sponsor those key terminologies that are the front and center of the Chinese tradition whenever they can. Chinese academia is genuinely divided over the future path of China. Western money understandably went (and still goes) to those Chinese scholars who are Western-educated and/or promote(ed) total Westernization. Sometimes greedy and submissive, many Chinese professors have adopted Western biblical and philosophical interpretations for all East-Asian thought. Thus, Chinese shengren became ‘saints’ or ‘philosophers’, and Chinese wenming became ‘civilization’; and ren became ‘concrete humanity’ and what not. Overseas Chinese who submit to the Eurocentric worldview are often paid better than their local Chinese peers, especially at the two great educational flagships of the Chinese civilization - Peking University and Tsinghua University. This won’t be the end of the (his)story. Some observers say that we are witnessing the dismantling of Western-written 'World history', literally, by letting other cultures’ originality stepping in and between the lines. People call this healthy but slow process "De-Westernization." To be sure, tens of thousands of Asian concepts are yet completely unknown to the Americans and Europeans. Scholars of China Studies who (despite knowing English) have insisted on continuing the Chinese tradition are marginalized. But they are greater in numbers. From Gu Zhengkun of Peking University, to Chen Lai of Tsinghua University, to Roger T. Ames of the University of Hawaii – most refuse to use misleading English translations for Confucian key terms such as rujia, or ren. China is not alone. Everywhere in the world we see foreign scholars who demand the liberation of their nation’s vocabularies and, following from that, the creation of a new global language. In Japan we have Haneda Masashi of Tokyo University; in the US we have the Indian Rajiv Malhotra, in South Korea we have Yersu Kim of Kyung Hee University, and in Iran we have S. A. Mirhosseini, to name but a few. Understandably, China leadership has a great interest in protecting Chinese culture against Western language imperialism. For young scholars, artist, journalist, and writers all over the world, this could be a most interesting development. Don’t we all come from cultures with a great originality and inventiveness, but were silenced by Western education, editors, publishers, and institutions who forced us to employ pure and clean English, or else perish? For men and women who live for letters, racism seems but a trifle compared to the ongoing prejudices against foreign words. We cannot act as if China didn't matter, as if the East-Asians for the last 3000 years invented nothing worth of naming and branding. The liberation of Chinese culture - its words and concepts - has only just begun. Originally published as “Dreams of De-Westernization” at Big Think, New York: http://bigthink.com/dragons-and-pandas/chinas-big-mamas-academic-tyrants-and-red-princelings 为什么中国梦的翻译是“Zhongguo Meng”，而不是“Chinese Dream”？ http://jandan.net/2015/03/10/zhongguo-meng.html About the author: http://www.east-west-dichotomy.com/about-the-author/

• published: 29 Mar 2015
• views: 68