West African Traders as Translators Between Chinese and African Urban Modernities

我们研究项目的第二阶段证实，非洲对中国和中国事物的强大想象，与其说是由居住在非洲的中国行动者塑造的，不如是由数量迅速增长的非洲跨国贸易商塑造的，这些贸易商冒险远道采购中国制造的商品。在这些贸易商中，中国已经成为塞内加尔和加纳正在进行的关于城市现代性的谈判的另一个参考点和灵感来源，作为这些谈判的一部分，中国的东西被引入翻译。我们已经确定了三个主要的、反复出现的翻译主题，它们需要在项目的下一阶段进一步研究，因为它们在引发社会变革和重新排序方面的重要性和潜力：物质对象及其意义对当地品味和需求的适应；对中国专业精神和商业惯例的认可；以及批判性地采用中国的政治和社会组织方式。在我们未来的工作中，我们的目标是进一步分析翻译产品的原始中国含义，影响我们的线人选择和适应的潜在因素，以及它们融入加纳和塞内加尔城市环境的影响。在实证证明了个体的社会定位和经济参与对翻译过程的强烈影响之后，我们第三阶段的主要研究目标是推进我们以行动者为中心的翻译模型中对翻译及其机制的系统理解。此外，我们将研究在塞内加尔和加纳的城市中，通过人们的旅行和翻译产品增加与中国的接触对中国旅居者与这些社会中当地人口之间的互动与合作的影响，这是项目第一阶段的主要研究目标。除了为建立翻译作为跨地域社会过程的一般理论做出贡献外，我们的项目还为SPP1448增加了价值，因为它考察了在社会秩序中，旅行思想对叙事和反叙事的生产、合法化和竞争的深刻辩证影响。

The second phase of our research project confirmed that powerful imaginations of China and things Chinese in Africa are shaped less by Chinese actors residing in Africa than by the rapidly growing number of African transnational traders who venture afar to procure made-in-China goods. Among these traders, China has become an alternative reference point and a source of inspiration for the ongoing negotiations about urban modernities in Senegal and Ghana, as part of which translations of things Chinese are introduced. We have identified three major, recurrent topics of translation that need to be further investigated in the project's next phase for their significance and potential in triggering social change and re-ordering: the adaptation of material objects and their significations to local tastes and demands; the endorsement of Chinese professionalism and business practices; and the critical adoption of Chinese ways of organizing politics and society.In our future work we aim to further analyze the translational products in terms of their original Chinese significations, the underlying factors shaping their selection and adaptation by our informants, and the effects of their integration into the contexts of urban Ghana and Senegal. Having empirically established that individual's social positioning and economic engagement strongly influence the process of translation, our main research aim in the third phase is to advance the systematic understanding of translation and its mechanisms presented in our actor-centered translation model. Also, we will examine the repercussions of increased exposure to China in urban Senegal and Ghana through the traveling of people and translational products on the interaction and cooperation between Chinese sojourners and local populations in these societies, which was the main research objective of the first phase of the project.In addition to contributing to general theory building on translation as a translocal social process, our project also adds value to the SPP1448 because of its examination of the profound dialectical effects of travelling ideas on the production, legitimization and competition of narratives and counternarratives in the ordering of societies.