Translation and Communication of Chinese People-Oriented Culture — A Corpus-based Study on the Translation History of the Chinese Concept Min Ben Zhu Yi 民本主义

Abstract

The Chinese concept min ben zhu yi, though born in the 1920s, was translated and introduced to the United States till the 1980s, and after 2000 it fully came into public view. At the early stage, the translation of min ben zhu yi 民本主义 was not uniform. It was not until 2017 that its authoritative translation “people-oriented” was determined. Before that, the Western concept of “humanism” was often borrowed for translation, which resulted in a deviation in meaning. After being introduced to the United States, min ben zhu yi 民本主义 was influenced by “humanism” in local culture while influencing it. Due to the misunderstanding in the Western world, the meaning of min ben zhu yi 民本主义 underwent variation and re-variation, which aggravated the misuse of humanism.