Description
This paper explores the linguistic aspect of the unequal treaties between Britain and China in the late nineteenth century. Specifically, it will review Article 50 and 51 of the Treaty of Tianjing (1858) and argue that the Anglo-Chinese diplomacy in the nineteenth century was characterized not only by Britain’s military dominance over China, but also by the linguistic inequality created by the British claim of ownership over the meanings of certain semantically ambiguous Chinese terms used during the diplomatic interactions, such as “夷(yi)”. Such a claim of absolute ownership was inscribed in—and thus legitimized through—treaty provisions and eventually led to the banning of the usage of “夷(yi)” in any diplomatic practices between Britain and China. The ban also ended up erasing the term altogether from future Chinese discourse and consequently changing the entire modern Chinese lexicon. The paper concludes with the importance of interrogating the role of language in contributing to our understanding of the current Western-dominated world order.
