To Embrace Chinese? To De-Sinicize? The Translation of the Term "Governor" in Late Qing Period and the Use of the Term "Chief Executive" in Post-Colonial Hong Kong.

The 156 years of British colonial rule (1842-1997) finally ended when the sovereignty over Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. Since 1980, many new policies had been introduced in Hong Kong for the purpose of smoothing the process of handover. Some of the policies were introduced out of consideration for new political circumstances. Others were launched with the hidden agenda of erasing colonial history. The implementation of Chinese as an official medium of communication in the judicial system reflects the former, whereas the change of the Chinese titles of government officials reflects the latter. Many translation issues were involved in these so-called localization policies. In this regard, the change of Chinese titles for government officials in Hong Kong is a subject worthy of study. The Chinese titles of major government officials in colonial Hong Kong were actually taken over from those of Imperial China. Therefore, they are marks of Chinese imperial history rather than British colonial history. However, for the apparent propose of erasing colonial history, these proper Chinese titles were changed to newly coined Chinese titles that are not found in Chinese history. The aim of this paper is to use the issue of translation as an example to demonstrate that in the decolonization process of Hong Kong, as in that of many other colonized countries which intended to break with their colonial past, many decolonizing policies were actually self-defeating in purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]