Clothing the "Chinese Lady" in "Her New English Garb": Thomas Percy's Hau Kiou Choaan (1761) and the Naturalization of Chinese Fiction in Eighteenth-Century Britain.

This article examines Thomas Percy's eighteenth-century English translation and editorial adaptation of the seventeenth-century Chinese fiction Haoqiu Zhuan, published as Hau Kiou Choaan (1761), within the broader context of British debates on naturalization acts. Percy's process of "naturalization"—involving alterations to plot structure, character portrayal, and extensive cultural annotations—reflects contemporary struggles over the assimilation of foreigners in Britain and the challenges of rendering Chinese literature accessible and acceptable to British readers. While Percy sought to present Chinese fiction as a moral exemplar comparable to English literature, his modifications often downplayed the heroine's intelligence and agency to align with British sentimental novel conventions, revealing ambivalent attitudes toward Chinese culture. The article highlights how the translation simultaneously attempts to domesticate the foreign text and underscores its resistance to full assimilation, mirroring eighteenth-century British anxieties about citizenship, belonging, and cultural difference.