Tłumaczenie jako broń dyplomatyczna. Song Meiling i językowe oblicze chińsko-amerykańskiego sojuszu w czasie II wojny światowej

Bartosz Turski

doi:10.18290/rh26743.9

Published : 2026-06-01

Vol. 74 No. 3 (2026)

Translation as a Diplomatic Weapon: Song Meiling and the Linguistic Dimension of the Sino-American Alliance During World War II

Bartosz Turski

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7488-508X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh26743.9

Abstract

This article explores the role of translation as a diplomatic tool through the case of Song Meiling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek) during her diplomatic tour of the United States in 1943 and her involvement in the Cairo Conference. The article shows how Song used her personal experience, education, and familiarity with American culture to shape the image of China in the eyes of the American public and political elites. The analysis relies on her speeches delivered before the United States Congress on February 18, 1943, at the Hollywood Bowl on April 4, 1943, as well as her role during the Cairo Conference in November 1943. The author adopts a case study approach combined with discourse analysis, drawing on translation theories proposed by Juliane House and Lawrence Venuti, as well as Joseph Nye’s concept of soft power. The findings indicate that Song Meiling employed translational and cultural strategies such as domestication and foreignization, which enabled her translations to function as instruments of persuasion. The study concludes that her translations were not merely acts of linguistic transfer but constituted a form of diplomatic weaponry and a means of exerting influence. Madame Chiang thus emerges as an important example of the effective use of translation in twentieth-century diplomacy.

Keywords:

Song Meiling, diplomacy, soft power, World War II, translation, China, history

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

References

Źródła

Address by Madame Chiang Kai-shek at Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles 4 April 1943. YouTube, video 1:20:52. Dostęp 17.12.2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlsnDdU7ksU.

Congressional Record. 78th Cong., 1st sess. February 18, 1943. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1943.

Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943. Red. William M. Franklin i William Gerber. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1961.

Opracowania

Chang, Jung. Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China. London: Vintage, 2020.

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Mitter, Rana. Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937–1945. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.

Nye, Joseph S. Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. New York: PublicAffairs, 2004.

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