Mai H.'s Reviews > Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution

Internalized racism and the takedown of colonialism? Hell yes. Give me more. The same people that are offended by YELLOWFACE will also be offended by BABEL. IYKYK

It is 1828 in Canton, now known as Guangzhou, a city in Southern China that has historically spoken Cantonese. I won't get into the linguistics of how Cantonese is different than Mandarin, and every other Chinese language.

(Side note: Why are Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish called languages when they are mutually intelligible? Cantonese and Mandarin are not mutually intelligible, and yet they're called dialects. Perhaps a question for another platform.)

Robin, whose birth name we never learn, is a mixed race Chinese boy by birth. At the beginning of the story, his mother and their entire household has just died of cholera. In swoops Professor Lovell to steal Robin back to the UK. Robin has grown up speaking English due to an English tutor. He spends the next seven years learning Greek, Latin, and everything else an Oxford scholar requires.

When Robin reaches Oxford, and Babel, the translation institute, we see the world through new eyes. The UK still exists in this alternate universe. It is still an empire that reigns supreme. However, instead of the Industrial Revolution, the world is run by silver, which the empire monopolizes. Silver bars work by having one word transcribed on them on two sides, in two different languages. As other European languages have so many loan words in English, these match pairs begin to lose their power. England must look to the untapped languages of the East, to those in China, India, and beyond.

Robin brings Cantonese, which he quickly begins to forget. It is very easy to lose a language when you don't use it every day. Professor Lovell has Robin instructed in Mandarin.

He quickly makes friends with his cohort, outsiders in the wider world of Oxford. Ramy is from India, and the two become fast friends. There is a hierarchy of sorts, in the ways which they experience racism, because in the right light Robin can pass for white.

The two girls have it a little harder. Victoire is Black, and experiences things that Letty, who is white, doesn't even notice, such as not being allowed to use the indoor bathroom at their lodgings.

I won't say I was surprised at the deceit and betrayal in this book, nor who it came from. It was very obvious to me. Perhaps this is what offended so many people. Perhaps it was the obvious message of anti-colonialism. But if, like me, you come from immigrant parents who lived in a much colonized country, and moved to another formerly colonized country where we do not pass as the majority, you will find yourself somewhere in this story.