The Perils of Interpreting
Henrietta Harrison’s *The Perils of Interpreting* weaves the parallel, interconnected lives of two forgotten translators to unpack the high-stakes world of cross-cultural diplomacy between Qing China and Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Follow Jacob Li, a Chinese Catholic educated in Naples who served as a critical interpreter for the Macartney Embassy, navigating the risks of bridging his faith, Chinese identity, and British diplomatic goals. Contrast his journey with George Staunton Jr., the precocious British boy trained in Chinese by his father, who grew into a key figure in Sino-British trade and diplomacy, only to see his idealism crumble amid imperial tensions. Harrison reveals how translation was never just linguistic conversion—it was a battlefield of power, loyalty, and cultural compromise, where missteps could ruin careers, spark conflict, or even cost lives. Through their untold stories, the book exposes the hidden perils of connecting two empires on the brink of war.