Translating and visualizing Chinese childhood
Intermedial mediation in Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19488167 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Weiwei Li (0000-0002-5186-5608, University of Leeds, corresponding author), Weiyan Li (0000-0001-8480-3502, Beijing Normal University), Wenjie Li (0000-0003-4413-5612, Beijing Normal University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-26 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2330-6351 • E-ISSN: 2330-6343 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/23306343.2026.2667166 |
| OpenAlex | W7160824231 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 23 |
This article examines how Isaac Taylor Headland’s Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes (1900) constructs a transnational image of Chinese childhood through intertwined processes of translation, visual mediation, and ideological framing. Moving beyond previous text-focused studies, it foregrounds the collection’s intermedial dimension. Using a three-tier framework of textual mediation, intermedial interaction, and ideological interplay, the study analyses 140 translated rhymes together with 124 photographs and illustrations. Ideology is treated as a lens permeating the textual and visual layers. The findings show that Headland’s translation domesticate culturally specific elements, aligning the rhymes with Anglophone ideas of childhood innocence and play. Meanwhile, the photographs employ composition, framing, and viewing positions to produce typologised and sentimentalised images of Chinese children. Together, these strategies construct a culturally accessible yet ideologically mediated image of Chinese childhood, effectively reframing the collection as a curated cultural artefact aligned with missionary and colonial expectations. By integrating translation studies with visual and multimodal analysis, this study reconceptualises translation as an intermedial process of cultural mediation that not only represents but also structures cross-cultural perception, offering new insights into the historical construction of global childhoods
Goose · Mediation · Metaphor · Object (grammar) · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Themes in Literature Analysis · Translation Studies and Practices
Imperial Eyes
Text and Image
Paralanguage in the Translation of Children’s Graphic Novels into Arabic
Translatability or untranslatability
Translation as historical event
Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power
Developments
Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood
Folklore Research in Communist China
A Literature of Questions
Ancient Chinese Nursery Rhymes and Their Cultural Connotations
Folk Song Collecting in China - a Short Survey
Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |