Abstract

This thesis is a case study of the controversies over the Chinese equivalents of the Christian term "God" during the Jesuits' proselytizing efforts in China. The author of the thesis tries to show, in a contrastive way, how the power relations between China and the Spanish and Portuguese colonials from the sixteenth to early eighteenth centuries had a significant impact on the Catholic mission strategy in China and their translation of the essential Christian term "God" into Chinese. Through a diachronic analysis, the writer attempts to construe how power was exercised and contested for control and dominance by translating differently the Christian term "God" into Chinese discourse. The aim of the thesis is to investigate how a text is conditioned and shaped by power differentials and the significance of this to Translation Studies as a whole.