Translating culture: missionaries and linguists in contemporary Yunnan Province

Abstract

In an attempt to emulate early modern missionaries to Yunnan who engaged in the invention of writing systems for various ethnic groups, contemporary evangelical missionaries in Yunnan have become heavily involved in the realm of linguistics, focused on the preservation of endangered languages. While such activity may potentially be perceived as a challenge to the state-Chinese linguistic hegemony, I argue that the presence of missionary linguists is acceptable to the Chinese authorities as it does not threaten the paramount position of Putonghua but rather serves to integrate minority people into the state system. In addition, based on interviews conducted with a missionary working to produce texts for Kunming’s Buoyi population in their language, I aim to demonstrate how missionary linguists attempt to remold local culture by attempting to reconstruct ethnic identity around a language core. The article is based on fieldwork conducted in Yunnan in 2009–2010 and 2012.

Keywords:

• Yunnan
• Summer Institute of Linguistics
• Buoyei
• Missionaries
• Translation
• C2C

Acknowledgements

The research presented here is based on 15 months of multi-sited anthropological fieldwork conducted in Yunnan in the years 2009–2010. I am particularly thankful to Prof. Nimrod Baranovitch, who has provided guidance since the inception of this research project and throughout the writing process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Gladney, “Representing Nationality in China,” 95; Harrell, “Civilizing Projects,” 27; Blum, Portraits of “Primitives”: Ordering Human Kinds in the Chinese Nation, 83.

2. Maxey, “Bible Translation as Contextualization,” 175.

3. Dunch, “Beyond Cultural Imperialism,” 318.

4. Shih, Negotiating Ethnicity in China, 179.

5. Tsung, Wang and Zhang, “Bilingual Education in China,” 108.

6. Dwyer, “The Texture of Tongues,” 80; See also: Hartch, Missionaries of the State.

7. Shih, Negotiating Ethnicity in China, 166.

8. Sanneh, Translating the Message, 51.

9. Ibid., 53.

10. Hartch, Missionaries of the State, 129.

11. Lemoine, “Ethnicity, Culture and Development,” 7; Xing, “On Writing Systems,” 75; Tien, Peaksof Faith, 45–6.

12. Poa and Lapolla, “Minority Languages of China,” 341.

13. Iradale, Contemporary Minority, Migration, Education, 52.

14. Dwyer, “The Texture of Tongues,” 72.

15. Lemoine, “Ethnicity, Culture and Development,” 7.

16. Tien, Peaksof Faith, 46.

17. Zhan, Interview, 5 May 2010; Interview, Sean, 10 October 2012.

18. The Jesus Film is a description of the events depicted in the Gospel, translated into numerous languages and considered a basic tool of missionary work. Evidence to its centrality can be seen in Paul Hattaway’s book Project China. Special attention is given to the number and percentage of Christians in a given group and the Christian materials available, including specific reference to the availably of The Jesus Film in the language of any given ethnic group in the world.

19. Harrell, “Civilizing Projects,” 7.

20. Interviews: Ken, Kunming, 16 April 2010; Kate, Kunming, 1 January 2010.

21. Andesron, Communicating the Good News, 150.

22. Interview, Thakpa, Shangrila, 18 August 2010.

23. Poa and Lapolla, “Minority Languages of China,” 338.

24. Hansen, Lessons in Being Chinese, 49.

25. Shih, Negotiating Ethnicity in China, 171.

26. Hansen, Lessons in Being Chinese, 59.

27. McCarthy, Communist Multiculturalism, 124.

28. Dwyer, “The Texture of Tongues,” 70; Shih, Negotiating Ethnicity in China, 175; Ross, China Country Study, 26.

29. Zhou, Multilingualism in China, 36.

30. According to Shih, some schools pose as bilingual, providing minimal and insubstantial instruction of the ethnic language only to be eligible for special government grants.

31. Shih, Negotiating Ethnicity in China, 165.

32. Poa and Lapolla, “Minority Languages of China,” 341.

33. Sanneh, Translating the Message, 212.

34. Ibid., 213–15.

35. Reinders, Borrowed Gods and Foriegn Bodies: Christian Missionaries Imagine Chinese Religion, 77.

36. Smalley, Translation as Mission, 85.

37. Scotty, Interview, 7 July 2010.

38. Pippin and Bailey, “Introduction: Race, Class, and the Politics.”

39. Sugirtharajah, “Textual Cleansing,” 9.

40. Lewis, The Missionaries.

41. Hartch, Missionaries of the State, xv.

42. Errington, Linguistics in a Colonial World: A Story of Language, Meaning and Power, 153.

43. Sun, “Yunnan Shaoshu Minzu Zongjiao,” 98.

44. Smalley, Translation as Mission, 78.

45. Hartch, Missionaries of the State, 148; for an example of anti-SIL writings, see Hvalkof and Aaby, Is God an American?

46. Errington, Linguists in Colonial World, 157.

47. Interview, Sean, Kunming, 10 October 2012

48. All quotes are taken from the SIL East Asia site: ‘Zero Barrier: Zero Barrier Bilingual Education Concept’, http://www.eastasiagroup.net/en/zero-barrier [accessed 12 January 2015].

49. McCarthy, Communist Multiculturalism, 121.

50. Ibid., 126.

51. Ibid., 127.

52. SIL East Asia, “Bai Project Report”.

53. Interview, Sean, Kunming, 10 October 2012.

54. Guo, “Christian Group Sings Songs of Their Faith.”

55. Errington, Linguists in Colonial World, 158.

56. On the perceived neutrality of Latin writing systems from a state perspective see: Dwyer, “The Texture of Tongues,” 70.

57. Interestingly, Sean pointed out that the parallel project among the Xishuangbanna Dai has encountered other problems. The Dai retain a strong ethnic identity and attachment to the Dai language. However, unlike the Bai, the Dai do not place great emphasis on secular education and it is hard to get them to send their children to school, regardless of the language spoken.

58. Iredale, Contemporary Minority, Migration, Education, 68.

59. Hartch, Missionaries of the State, 53. For a similar description, regarding SIL work in Guatemala see Errington, Linguists in Colonial World, 154.

60. Simon, Interview, Kunming, 21 October 2010.

61. According to the website ‘The Joshua Project’, the Bouyei or Bouyi of Guizhou number 2.5–3 million people and are a group virtually indistinguishable from the Zhuang of Guanxi.

62. Simon, Interview, Kunming, 21 January 2010.

63. Poa and Lapolla, “Minority Languages of China,” 339–40.

64. Simon was never willing to disclose how many actual Bouyei converts he had made. However, the community was clearly quite small.

65. Zhang, “Jindai jidujiao zai Yunnan,” 18; Li and Mei, “Jidujiao dui yunnan shaoshu minzu,” 14.

66. Clarke, Among the Tribes, 137.

67. Hansen, Lessonsin Being Chinese, 65.

68. McCarthy, Communist Multiculturalism, 127.

69. Simon preferred to define himself as non-denominational but was deeply involved in Pentecostal practices such as visions, dreams and ‘speaking in tongues’.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the I-CORE Program of the Planning and Budgeting Committee and The Israel Science Foundation [grant no 1754/12] and Haifa University and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange.

Notes on contributors

Gideon Elazar

Gideon Elazar is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters in the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. He is also a lecturer of Chinese history and Buddhist and Jewish comparative philosophy in Bar Ilan University and Herzog College. His doctorate deals with Evangelical missionaries, minorities and the state in present day Yunnan Province.Author’s postal address: The center for the Research of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, 84105, Israel.