Indigenizing visualized knowledge: translating Western science illustrations in China, 1870–1910

Abstract

This article discusses how the translation of science illustrations operated interculturally in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century China. I examine three categories of translated images: those with transformation in core information, those with alterations in peripheral information and those without any changes. In order to understand the differences between Western images and their Chinese translations, I analyze the nature of science illustrations, the problem of “visual literacy” and the goals of the translators involved. I contend that illustrators' personal understanding of science and artistic training played a significant role in adapting Western images to Chinese visual conventions and thus potentially aiding Chinese readers' access to Western science. Examining the different divisions of labor required by different printing techniques, I argue that even in the face of electrotypography's challenge to human intervention, translators still made some aesthetic choices and balanced them with practical needs.