Abstract
This chapter examines one of the earliest encounters between traditional Chinese fiction and the English-speaking world. The first traditional Chinese novel translated into English was Haoqiu zhuan 好逑傳; Thomas Percy published the translation as Hau Kiou Choaan, or, The Pleasing History in 1761. This is a study of Hau Kiou Choaan within the context of eighteenth-century British print culture that sheds new light on the nature and significance of Percy’s translation. Percy included heterogeneous materials to make the translation an encyclopedic portrayal of China. In comparing the paratexts of this translation to those of eighteenth-century British novels, this chapter demonstrates that Hau Kiou Choaan reflects the tension between the translation of a Chinese fictional work with its limited scope and Percy’s ambition of offering an all-encompassing narrative of China. Hau Kiou Choaan represents an early instance in which a Chinese novel collides with and enters a Western system of knowledge about China.
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Luo, J. (2022). Hau Kiou Choaan: Encyclopedic Novel, Print Culture, and the Knowledge About China. In: Traditional Chinese Fiction in the English-Speaking World. Chinese Literature and Culture in the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05686-4_2
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