A Final Word

The authors end their study of the four keywords by reflecting on the consequences of recent events relating to Europe and the increasing need for us to find shared keywords in the global world. Having begun with Raymond Williams’ definition of keywords and taken on board a multilingual approach to keywords as ideological concepts, the authors review the ways the people has taken on radical forms in Britain, France and Germany, while at other times it has been heralded as the motor of history in Chinese and Czechoslovak communist rhetoric. The adoption of Western keywords such as citizen and individual proves to be just as political, the authors conclude. And Europe is no less political, whether it is a question of celebrating it as an ideal, defending it as a project, or attacking it from without or from within. The authors conclude with the hope that they have managed to move beyond national prejudice and beyond reductive stereotypes. The model their corpus-based research provides is one in which three levels of complexity must be taken into account. Each tradition is complex and changing in any linguistic or cultural exchange, and the migration of meanings between any two cultures proves equally complex. By seeking to represent the various ways Chinese authors respond to the diversity of European conceptualizations of the four keywords, the authors hope to have taken readers beyond East-West models, and Communist-Capitalist models, simplistic oppositions which break down as soon as we consider how individual authors express themselves in any given language at any given moment in history. This book is about words, and what happens when meanings migrate, but it is also about worldviews, and how we live within them, learning to express ourselves with words.

Introduction

The Introduction considers the need for global concepts shared throughout the world for commerce, human rights and geopolitics. At the same time, the authors posit that keywords are historically and linguistically situated. For this reason, they contend that it is essential to understand how keywords migrate from one culture to another, and what happens when cultures adopt foreign keywords. What happens to related words? And how does the reinterpretation of foreign keywords affect the worldview of the linguistic community that assimilates them? Methodology, sources and objectives are outlined in this introduction. The authors have adopted certain principles and paradigms from Raymond Williams in sociology, and from Wilhelm von Humboldt and Anna Wierzbicka in linguistics and language philosophy.

Europe

This chapter explores the various representations of Europe found in English and other languages. Euroscepticism is taken into account, and the waning of the French ideal of Europe is contrasted with the relative indifference or antipathy for Europe expressed by various English authors over the centuries. In addition to the corpus-based research, this chapter aims to outline the way attitudes to Europe are tied up in metaphorical narratives of Europe as an unstable building or sinking ship. Attacks on Europe in the English press are considered and contrasted with the press of other European nations. As the Brexit crisis continues, the authors explain the way the French President, Emmanuel Macron, positions himself in the face of rising Euroscepticism in France and the threat of the Far Right, hostile to the European Union. In contrast to this, Scottish and American authors who love and celebrate Europe are quoted. The authors consider the idealism that has often focused on Europe with a broad long-term perspective, quoting French authors such as Victor Hugo and Charles de Gaulle. American ambivalence concerning Europe as both an ally and a rival is taken into account, but the authors choose to focus on the American Sociologist, Jeremy Rifkin, who affirms that the American Dream is less suited to the 21st century than ‘the European Dream’. Europe is thus considered from within and from without. From within, the Europa website is studied to explain how Europe presents itself to the citizens of the Member States. In the Chinese section, the authors outline the way Chinese authors weigh up Europe as one of the possible models of Westernization, stressing the way Europe has created a sustainable multi-nation, multilingual economic and social zone. In the context of the European migration crisis, Brexit crisis, and other difficulties closely followed by the Chinese press, the authors contend that the Chinese Dream is positioning itself as an ideal in relation to Westernization and Europeanization as possible policies. The complex and changing attitudes of the Chinese to Europe as a colonial power, as a rival, and as a trading partner are considered in order to show what China understands by Europe, and what kind of mirror it holds up to Europeans from the Chinese perspective.

Individual

This chapter treats the individual as a conceptual problem, both a modern ideal and a European characteristic. But the authors set out by considering the European traditions that have warned against excessive individualism, from the Church, from Marxists, and even from those who are now seen today as the champions of individual rights (such as John S. Mill). The enlightened individualism of William James and John Dewey, and the celebration of the individual by American poets such as Walt Whitman, is contrasted with Marxist objections to the keyword. Milan Kundera’s story about Ludvík, in The Joke, shows the way Czech communists mistrusted individualists and considered them to be enemies of the people. The Chinese section treats ‘individual’ as a foreign term, like citizen, that is introduced to Chinese after being borrowed from Japanese. The authors argue that the keywords used to denote the individual in Chinese and other languages have never been neutral. Clearly perceived in negative terms for many decades in China, the authors explore the way citizens began to discuss individual rights and individual obligations when the Chinese economy and the society began to open up after 1978.

The People

This long chapter is divided into the keywords used in European languages to refer to ‘the people’, and the various keywords that the Chinese language has used throughout its history. In Chinese, the keyword 人民‎ rénmín is at times regarded as the most important element in the nation. And the authors show how the people were celebrated in Mao’s China. Even though ‘citizen’ [gōngmín 公民‎) has made a comeback in recent years, according to the authors’ findings, the Chinese keyword 人民‎ rénmín remains a central concept, despite ironic uses in contemporary Chinese literature and the press. In European languages, the authors argue, the people can be considered as the masses, as a political force, or as a group that is marginalized or ignored. In English and French, the people are often regarded with condescension, as such expressions as ‘the common people’ and ‘fils du peuple’ suggest. However, French has a radical revolutionary tradition that means that ‘le peuple’ can be activated at strategic moments in history, as was proven in recent years. Radical right-wing movements in France are contrasted with the Farage’s Brexit rhetoric, championing ‘the people’. In contrast ‘the Volk’ in German has a much more resilient tradition with roots that spread throughout the lexicon of the language as a whole. And Czech provides the authors with communist rhetoric that parallels Mao’s celebration of the people (人民‎ rénmín) in Chinese.

Citizen

This chapter outlines the scope of the corpus-based study of ‘citizen’, considers the historical roots of the keyword in English and its usages in Scottish and American English. It asks what criteria is used to define citizenship. Is it a spatial concept, a concept that is related to nationality or to urban inhabitants? Who is excluded from citizenship? What minorities fail to achieve the rights of citizens? These are the authors’ questions. As they demonstrate, world citizen (citoyen du monde) has a long tradition in French, and American and English authors seek inspiration in that concept. But are we all world citizens? And what rights does that open up to us? Citizen, the authors contend, is a moral, political and ideological concept. It relates to rights, human rights. But with the celebration of the people citizenship can be overshadowed. And in the Chinese worldview, the increasing concern for the ‘citizen’ [gōngmín 公民‎) perhaps announces a new chapter in Chinese history as Marxist ideology appears to be on the wane.