A Century Later, the Chinese Union Version Still Dominant
Introduction: Since its publication in 1919, the Chinese Union Version (CUV) of the Bible has become the most dominant and popular translation in Chinese. Despite numerous changes to the Chinese language and a significant increase of new translations, its dominance is unabated and unshaken.
“It could well be the most influential ‘Chinese text’ among the Chinese readers for the past one hundred years and also in the future,” Taiwan-based scholar Chin Ken-pa wrote in the anthology Ever Since God Spoke Chinese. “Undoubtedly, even if we cannot claim it has become a ‘canon’ in the Chinese world, it is certainly an ‘authority.’”
The translation team of CUV included 16 Western missionaries and a few Chinese Christian experts, including Americans Calvin Wilson Mateer and Chauncey Goodrich; Englishmen George Sidney Owen and Frederick William Baller, and Chinese scholars Cheng Jingyi, Liu Dacheng, and Wang Zhixin. The translation of the Mandarin New Testament started in 1872, and the whole Bible was published in 1919. The guiding principles of translation included that it must be in the national language (not local vernacular), simple enough to be understood by people from all walks of life, and faithful to the original text without losing the rhythm of the Chinese language. ...
KEVIN XIYI YAO|APRIL 6, 2022
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For those who are interested, I did a six part podcast series on the history of Bible translation into Chinese. Here are the episodes:
https://anchor.fm/workingfortheword/episodes/The-Bible-in-China---part-1-with-Jost-Zetzsche-eviqj9
https://anchor.fm/workingfortheword/episodes/The-Bible-in-China---part-2-with-Jost-Zetzsche-e1029l5
https://anchor.fm/workingfortheword/episodes/The-Bible-in-China---part-3-with-Dr--Simon-Wong-e10uk53
https://anchor.fm/workingfortheword/episodes/The-Bible-in-China---part-4-e11cuet
https://anchor.fm/workingfortheword/episodes/The-Bible-in-China---part-5---the-amazing-Schereschewsky-e11qraf
https://anchor.fm/workingfortheword/episodes/The-Bible-in-China---part-6---the-Union-Version-e1283m5
"A Century Later, the Chinese Union Version Still Dominant" --- why should this surprise us if after more than 400 years, KJV remains to be so dominant in the English speaking world! CUV didn't come out of a vacuum. This author (and many alike) of the article did not put CUV into the history of Chinese Bible translation; CUV did not invent all the biblical terminologies commonly used nowadays, but inherited from the Peking Version which served as the base of the CUV. The overwhelming reception of CUV must also be seen in the demography of the Chinese population, that's 90% of the global Chinese population is in PRC, where until recent decade or two, only CUV is printed in China since 1919 (the influence of CUV is certainly much less among the Chinese Christian diaspora). However, internet access (though restricted) will help to wash down the predominance of CUV in PRC; to be sure, it will take much less than 400 years!