Toward De-Colonial Dialogues: Grafting China’s Educational Epistemes to the English Wor(l)d Through Non-Derivative Translation Lens

• In Event: The Geopolitical Economic of Knowledge Production

Abstract

De-colonial studies expose-implode underlying modern-Eurocentric frameworks when explicating indigenous knowledges toward a cognitive justice. How can the latter be explicated-grafted to the dominant English wor(l)d against Western modernity/coloniality, however, remains ethically pressing and paradigmatically challenging. Examining China’s educational discourses, this paper dissects translation as a colonial and decolonial paradigm staked in cross-cultural knowledge transfer on two layers. First, we problematize a naturalized enactment of translation as transparent semantic-linguistic equivalization, assimilating Chinese cultural-epistemic sensibilities into the English grammar/episteme. Alternatively, we argue translation can be non-derivative and decolonial, explicating China’s educational epistemes beyond the Western linguistic-epistemic yoke. Showcasing China, this study sheds new light on how to translate/graft indigenous knowledges to the English wor(l)d toward a de-colonial dialogue in education and beyond.

Authors

• Weili Zhao, Hangzhou Normal University

• Yundan Zheng, Southwest University