Concept Localization:The Semantic Origin and Evolution of Social Service in Modern China
"Social service"is a crucial concept in the construction process of an indepen-dent knowledge system for social work in China.Originating as a modern term de-vised by Western countries to tackle social problems during modernization,it was in-troduced into China towards the end of the Qing Dynasty and has endured for over a century.As an"imported concept",it has been widely utilized in the Chinese context owing to its focus on social needs and public welfare.At present,it has progressively evolved into the bedrock of modern national governance capabilities and an essential part of the governance structure.Against this backdrop,the issue of feeble fundamen-tal research on"social service"in China has become more and more conspicuous.In this paper,a combined approach of historical semantics and historical sociol-ogy is employed to focus on the process in which the English concept of"social ser-vice"was translated into Chinese and achieved localization.Through consulting mod-ern English-Chinese dictionaries,newspapers,magazines,and relevant archives,it is found that among the numerous Chinese terms related to professional social work that emerged in China since modern times,"social service"appeared earlier than"so-cial work".Thus,it can be said that this Chinese concept emerged during the embry-onic stage of social work in China,which changed the"helping behavior"in the Chi-nese context in terms of knowledge genealogy,cognitive schema,and behavioral motivation,manifesting itself as a modern welfare concept directed at the"whole so-ciety"and marking the transition from China's traditional charitable relief undertak-ings to professional social work.From the"Christian Gospel"in the early 20th century to the"social welfare un-dertakings"after the victory of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression,the localization of the concept of"social service"in China has undergone three stages.Firstly,the concept generation stage.In the early 20th century,when Western missionaries were translating and spreading Western religious ideas,they"embedded the essence of religion in social service",took the lead in translating and introducing"Social Service"and determined the Chinese translation term.Secondly,the concept interpretation stage.During the 1920s-1930s,influenced by the Anti-Christian Movement and the awakening of the subjective consciousness of Chinese intellectu-als,social service achieved the"disenchantment"of its religious color.Meanwhile,the knowledge description of"social service"by the Chinese academic circle shifted from passive acceptance to active choice,and they creatively interpreted the Chinese concept of"social service"in combination with the local context to respond to social problems and improve social reality.On the one hand,this pointed to the altruistic practice with moral attributes at the practical level.That is to say,"social service"was regarded as an individual responsibility and a social obligation.On the other hand,it pointed to the professional knowledge system of sociology at the theoretical level."Social service"was the basic research method of applied sociology.Thirdly,the concept reconstruction stage.After the full outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression,when the country was in peril,social service became an urgent need during the war.With the will of the state as the main body and com-bined with the need to save the nation from subjugation,political functions were at-tached to"social service",and it was used as a way of social mobilization to deal with the war crisis and realize the united front of the nation-state.In these three stages,from the perspective of the occurrence mechanism,the emergence and evolution of the concept of"social service"implies the acceptance and integration of foreign knowledge by the local context.The localization of the Chinese concept of"social service"started from the introduction of knowledge from the outside to the inside,underwent the independent interpretation by endogenous subjects such as Chinese intellectual elites,and then stepped towards the expression of meaning in the national discourse,thus transforming the semantic meaning with the sacredness of Western moral traditions into a secularized and modernized under-standing suitable for China's local context.On the one hand,this stems from the fact that the"helping behavior"represented by"social service"has been endowed with the dual implications of public undertakings and professional methods.On the other hand,it also bears the practical needs of the national will for national reconstruction and social unity.It demonstrates that the semantic transformation of a particular con-cept serves not only as a"representation"for deciphering social and historical prog-ress but also as a"driving factor"that bears the weight of history and propels social advancement.Consequently,the isomorphic relationship between the evolution of the concept of"social service"and the local context itself symbolizes a social change in the dimension of interpretation,which helps to deepen the understanding of the in-terpretive approach to the knowledge subjectivity of social work in China.
万方数据
维普
