From Secrecy to the Public Sphere
Translating Chinese Sworn Brotherhood Practices for Western Audiences
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4496639 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Albert Manke (0000-0002-4703-7631, Ca' Foscari University of Venice), Fredy González (0000-0002-6008-714X, University of Illinois Chicago) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 387-395 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-11 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History and Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-2656 • E-ISSN: 1468-2303 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/hith.12393 |
| OpenAlex | W4412356079 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 3 |
This essay reflects on how changing practices and knowledge repertoires of Chinese migrant associations in the Americas shaped translocal collective spheres in the asymmetric setting known as the Exclusion Era. In order to achieve this, we highlight certain aspects and layers of what Homi K. Bhabha has called "cultural translation," which, in our case, was advanced through the agency, ideas, and practices of individuals who organized in Chinese sworn brotherhoods, a type of mutual aid association that prioritized secrecy and actively managing knowledge dissemination. As historians, we argue that an interdisciplinary analysis of these processes enables us to trace the evolving ways that migrants translated themselves and were translated transculturally, how they permeated (intentionally and unintentionally) sociolinguistic barriers, and how they communicated information in public and in private. This enables us to gain a clearer picture of the frameworks for mutual support, (non)shared knowledge, and dynamics of translation in migrant collectivities, whose members displayed creative agency while operating within powerful constraints. This makes for an innovative scholarly contribution that resides at the intersection of translation studies, history, migration studies, anthropology, and cultural studies
Epistemology · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Public sphere · Secrecy · Sociology · China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Law · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
| Highly cited | No |
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