Translation and Copyright Legislation in Late Qing China (1900-1910)

The last decade of the Qing dynasty (1900-1910) in China witnessed the interwoven relationship between translation practice and copyright legislation. The late Qing government had to face criticism concerning translation copyright since a large amount of translations was undertaken and there was unbalanced development of copyright laws in China and abroad. This contributed to the first copyright legislation in 1910. This paper aims to elaborate on the correlation between translation practice and the adoption of the first copyright law in China, namely the Law on Authors’ Rights in the Great Qing Empire (1910).