AcknowledgmentsAppendixesList of IllustrationsAbbreviations1 On the Linguistic Frontier in Canton A Cross-Cultural Approach to Language Learning 1.1 The Earliest Glimmer of Chinese Studies in America 1.2 Recovering Carter’s Story: Perspectives and Approaches 1.3 Learning the Language of the Other: The Place of Chinese Studies in Europe and America2 Finding a Calling Carter’s Transcontinental Journey to Chinese Studies 2.1 Restless in America: Family and Early Life 2.2 Opportunities in China: 1798–1806 2.3 Fulfillment in Europe and Disappointment at Home: 1806–1831 2.4 From Curiosity to a Lifelong Pursuit3 Reconstructing a Personalized Curriculum Textbooks, Dictionaries, and Study Notes 3.1 Learning Chinese the Chinese Way 3.2 From Linguistic Translation to Cultural Translation 3.3 Entering the Chinese World: Carter’s Chinoiserie Letter to Conseequa4 Chinese Instructors and Their Anglophone Students A Reappraisal 4.1 Learning Chinese in Canton and Macao 4.2 Abel Yen and His Anglophone Students 4.3 Language Instructor as Diplomatic Translator 4.4 The American Consul Wishes for an Interpreter5 Agent of Global Knowledge: Carter in London, Paris, and New York 5.1 Career Ambition: Consul Interpreter 5.2 An Early American Encounter with European Sinology 5.3 Academic Ambition: University Educator6 The Rise of American Chinese Studies: Changes in Foreign Policy, Academic Foci, and American Perceptions of China 6.1 Carter’s View of China and the Chinese 6.2 American Curiosity about Chinese Knowledge 6.3 The Missionary Roots of the American Sinological Tradition 6.4 The Interpreter as Diplomat 6.5 America’s First Course in Chinese Studies 6.6 The Chinese Language: Barrier or Gateway? 6.7 The Treasures in the Cushing Collection7 Concluding Remarks: Carter in Perspective 7.1 The Origin of Chinese Studies in America: An Alternative Pathway 7.2 Teaching and Learning Chinese in China at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century 7.3 Creation, Exchange, and Circulation of Chinese Knowledge on a Global Scale 7.4 Cross-Cultural Dialogues: Carter, the Canton Dialect, and Contemporary China-America RelationsAppendixBibliographyIndex