But Was It Ethical? Dewey in China and Japan and the Perils of Translation

• In Event: 42.037 - Perspectives on Comparative and Transnational Education During the First Half of the 20th Century

Abstract

John Dewey received radically different receptions in China and Japan during is stay in East Asia (1919-1921). Using numerous primary sources in Chinese and Japanese, this study considers the role of translation in conditioning the reception of Dewey’s ideas on education and democracy, both positive (China) and negative (Japan). Focusing on the translation of key concepts, such as “ethics,” the authors show that, given the different subject positions of the two countries in the global system of imperialist colonialism, the words chosen to represent Dewey’s concepts in Chinese and Japanese helped seal the fate of Dewey’s educational philosophy in the two countries.

Authors

• Richard C. Miller, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Katrina Liu, University of Nevada - Las Vegas