The Thistle and the Dragon: Scottish-Chinese Literary Encounters

What is it about?

This chapter offers an introductory overview of the contents of the edited collection, 'Scotland and China: Literary Encounters'. It identifies recurring themes that arise in the volume as a whole. The volume falls into two parts. The first six chapters address images of China in the literature of Scotland, from James Legge’s translations of sacred texts and ancient Chinese poetry to a contemporary poetry workshop at the University of St Andrews, where participants from China and Scotland collaborated in translating classical Chinese poetry into Scots. Key figures in this section are James Legge, Sir Reginald Johnston, Eric Linklater, neo-Victorian novelists such as George MacDonald Fraser, and the poets and translators, Douglas Young, David Purves, Edwin Morgan, Robert Crawford, and Brian Holton. The latter chapters address the translation and reception of Scottish literature in China, and cover the writings of Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, John Galt, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Hugh MacDiarmid, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Nan Shepherd, John McGrath, Gergory Burke, David Greig, David Harrower, and Claire McFall. The introduction considers the ways in which the cultures of 'the Other' are perceived as mirrors of that of 'the Self'; and they explore issues such as the translation of literary varieties of language, and how marketing strategies also reposition texts from the source culture in the literary system of the receiving culture.

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Why is it important?

This chapter introduces a ground-breaking volume of essays that are the first sustained account of literary exchanges between Scotland and China. The volume is innovative in that it looks in two directions: it considers how China and Chinese literature have been perceived in Scotland; and it considers the translation and reception of Scottish literature in China today.

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