Setting the stage for ‘going global’

Abstract In his polemical article “Translating into/out of one’s mother tongue: On the feasibility of translating Chinese classics into English by native Chinese translators,” Chinese scholar Pan Wenguo engages critically with the argument advanced by British sinologist A. C. Graham that “we can hardly leave translation to the Chinese” ( Graham 1965 : 37). Arguing forcefully in favor of the translation of Chinese classics by Chinese translators, Pan’s article is a seminal statement on the importance of ‘outward’ translation practices in China.