Ricardo Rudas Meo 丁凯铎
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Ricardo Rudas MeoDoctoral Candidate
E-Mail: ricardo.rudas.meo@grk2571.uni-freiburg.de Other Pages: |
Doctoral Project
Breaking through the Language Barrier: (Mis)communication in Chinese Communist State Building in the 1950s Sino-Tibetan Borderlands
My project investigates how language barriers shaped the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) state- and nation-building enterprise in the southwestern Sino-Tibetan borderlands—broadly the area then comprising the province of Xikang—during the 1950s, the first decade of CCP rule in this ethnoculturally diverse region. I analyze how the CCP communicated (or failed to communicate) with local communities as it worked to establish authority amidst language barriers, misunderstandings, and mistranslations. I aim to provide a fresh perspective on the CCP’s gargantuan state-building project on a periphery of the former Qing-imperial geo-body by approaching it from what must have posed a constant challenge for the Party at the grassroots level: the effective communication across language barriers.
The CCP’s project of imposition onto existing societies and transforming traditional cultures to create the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was a fundamentally communicative effort. It required the Party to make itself understood, to convey its ideology and expectations, to explain, legitimize, and promote its policies among local communities—an unavoidably linguistic challenge, especially in the non-Chinese speaking borderlands of the envisioned nation state. Communication and national integration were, thus, interrelated. Hence, to understand the state-building process in the peripheries of the young PRC, the question of how communication functioned on the ground is central: Did state agents speak local languages or did they communicate via reliable (or unreliable) interpreters? Were state agents arriving to the borderlands trained in local languages (and able to master them), or were seemingly loyal locals chosen to learn Chinese and trained to serve the Party-state? Through my research, I argue that language barriers emerged as a decelerating force for the CCP—one that seemingly resisted quick resolutions and constrained the envisioned pace of transformation.
I utilize a heterogeneous set of sources, including materials produced during the 1950s and in later decades, especially the post-Mao era. Retrospective sources include “cultural and historical materials” (wenshi ziliao), local gazetteers (difangzhi), memoirs, and biographies. Contemporary materials from the 1950s encompass archival documents gathered during field trips in China, newspapers, governmental documents in published source collections, cadre journals, language-learning materials, and other reference works intended for state agents working in the former province of Xikang (later, western Sichuan).
More broadly, I am interested in the language dimension in civilizing missions, moments of first encounter, and in empire-to-nation-state transformations.
建国初期，中共在边缘地区进行民族工作时遇到的语言障碍
该项目致力于研究建国初期，也就是1950年代的时候，中共中央政府在边缘地区（方言及非汉语母语地区）进行民族工作时与当地人口的语言沟通问题。中国由庞大的、分散的、多民族的、大多是缺乏读写能力的人口组成，如何在此基础上建构现代民族国家，向他们传播技术、法律、意识形态等方面的信息显得尤为重要。在此背景下，该项目旨在研究语言交流障碍对此带来的挑战。
中共在宣传工作、政策执行和税收等方面是如何克服语言障碍的？中央与边缘地区之间的沟通情况对国家建构过程有何影响？该研究项目涉及到国家官僚机构和地方社群初次接触、国家建构过程中存在的语言障碍,以及在一个多语言国家建设全国范围的通讯技术和邮政通信系统存在的挑战等具体问题。主要包括如下方面：政府代表讲哪种语言，是否通过讲当地语言的人进行传达，以及此人是否可靠。因此，这也是一项关于通事（也被称为通司、翻译）、中间人和 "文化经纪人" （cultural broker）的研究。
研究涉及的材料包括报纸、党派领导人讲话、边缘地区管辖相关指令、地方志、文史资料、驻扎在相关地区的干部和士兵的回忆录及传记，以及可能情况下的档案研究和访谈。
Research Interests
- History of Modern China
- Nationalism
- Race and Ethnicity
- Empire to Nation-State Transitions
- Borderlands and Frontiers
- Language in Modern China
Employment
- December 2020 – February 2022
Assistant Librarian,
Sinology Library,
Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany - October 2020 – October 2021
Research Assistant to Prof. Dr Nicola Spakowski,
Institute for Chinese Studies,
Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany - October 2018 – February 2019
Tutor, "Modern Chinese III",
Institute for Chinese Studies,
Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany - June 2018 – September 2019
Research Assistant to Dr René Trappel,
Institute for Chinese Studies,
Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany - October 2017 – August 2019
Translator (Chinese-German) for Works of Fiction (for the European University Press and West German University Press),
Prof. Dr Martin Woesler's Team - October 2017 – January 2018
Language Teacher (German and English),
Abc Dragon Language School,
Kunming, People's Republic of China - February 2017 – August 2017
Event Co-Organiser,
International Club, Studierendenwerk Freiburg-Schwarzwald,
Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany - October 2016 – February 2017
Tutor,
Department of Germanic Medieval Studies,
Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany
Education
- Since November 2022
Doctoral Candidate, Doctor of Philosophy in Modern History,
Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany - Since October 2020 – January 2023 (expected completion)
Master of Arts in Modern Chinese Studies
Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany - September 2019 – September 2021
Master of Arts, Chinese Studies
SOAS University of London, United Kingdom - September 2017 – February 2018
Intensive Chinese Language Course
Yunnan Normal University, People's Republic of China - October 2015 – September 2019
Bachelor of Arts in German Linguistics and Literary Studies; Minor in Sinology
Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany
Scholarships and Grants
- April 2019 – September 2022
German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) - September 2017 – February 2018
Confucius Institute Scholarship
Seminars and Workshops
- July 2022
Schülerakademie China
Organised by Bildungsnetzwerk China and Bildung & Begabung,
Co-taught high school students in a two-week history course on 20th-century China - August 2016 – September 2016
Nankai University, People's Republic of China
Summer School
Organised by the Studierendenwerk Freiburg-Schwarzwald and Nankai University
Participated in classes on Chinese economy, language, and culture