An American pioneer of Chinese Studies in cross-cultural perspective : : Benjamin Bowen Carter as an agent of global knowledge / / by Yeung Man Shun.

• Superior document: East and West (Leiden, Netherlands) ; Volume 12
• VerfasserIn: Yeung, Man Shun,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: East and West (Leiden, Netherlands) ; Volume 12.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

Benjamin Bowen Carter (1771-1831), one of the first Americans to speak and read Chinese, studied Chinese in Canton and advocated its use in diplomacy decades before America established a formal relationship with China. Drawing on rediscovered manuscripts, this book reconstructs Carter's multili...

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Appendixes
• List of Illustrations
• Abbreviations
• 1 On the Linguistic Frontier in Canton
• A Cross-Cultural Approach to Language Learning
• 1.1 The Earliest Glimmer of Chinese Studies in America
• 1.2 Recovering Carter's Story: Perspectives and Approaches
• 1.3 Learning the Language of the Other: The Place of Chinese Studies in Europe and America
• 2 Finding a Calling
• Carter's Transcontinental Journey to Chinese Studies
• 2.1 Restless in America: Family and Early Life
• 2.2 Opportunities in China: 1798-1806
• 2.3 Fulfillment in Europe and Disappointment at Home: 1806-1831
• 2.4 From Curiosity to a Lifelong Pursuit
• 3 Reconstructing a Personalized Curriculum
• Textbooks, Dictionaries, and Study Notes
• 3.1 Learning Chinese the Chinese Way
• 3.2 From Linguistic Translation to Cultural Translation
• 3.3 Entering the Chinese World: Carter's Chinoiserie Letter to Conseequa
• 4 Chinese Instructors and Their Anglophone Students
• A Reappraisal
• 4.1 Learning Chinese in Canton and Macao
• 4.2 Abel Yen and His Anglophone Students
• 4.3 Language Instructor as Diplomatic Translator
• 4.4 The American Consul Wishes for an Interpreter
• 5 Agent of Global Knowledge: Carter in London, Paris, and New York
• 5.1 Career Ambition: Consul Interpreter
• 5.2 An Early American Encounter with European Sinology
• 5.3 Academic Ambition: University Educator
• 6 The Rise of American Chinese Studies: Changes in Foreign Policy, Academic Foci, and American Perceptions of China
• 6.1 Carter's View of China and the Chinese
• 6.2 American Curiosity about Chinese Knowledge
• 6.3 The Missionary Roots of the American Sinological Tradition
• 6.4 The Interpreter as Diplomat
• 6.5 America's First Course in Chinese Studies
• 6.6 The Chinese Language: Barrier or Gateway?
• 6.7 The Treasures in the Cushing Collection
• 7 Concluding Remarks: Carter in Perspective
• 7.1 The Origin of Chinese Studies in America: An Alternative Pathway
• 7.2 Teaching and Learning Chinese in China at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century
• 7.3 Creation, Exchange, and Circulation of Chinese Knowledge on a Global Scale
• 7.4 Cross-Cultural Dialogues: Carter, the Canton Dialect, and Contemporary China-America Relations
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index.