A Study Of The Domestic Travel Of The New Intellectual Group During The Republic Of China

Travel is a form of spatial mobility of human beings,which shows the interaction between human beings and the earth in time and space.It can also gaze at the changes of social life style according to the evolution of travel concept and practice.Then to explore the characteristics of the transition of the times.Therefore,from the perspective of travel,we can not only overview the space-time changes of human-land relationship in the social transformation of modern China,but also can observe the elements of modern travel and the formation of travel as a modern life style.From the mid-19 th century to the mid-20 th century was a period of dramatic change from the traditional agricultural society to the modern industrial society in China.This change is most evident in the city.Among them,the lifestyles of teachers,editors,journalists,civil servants,entrepreneurs,lawyers and other new intellectuals show typical characteristics of the transition from traditional to modern.The time limit for this study was 1927-1936 has three reasons: Firstly,due to the continuous warlord confrontation in the early Republic of China,the development of domestic travel was limited,and have not form a complete travel literature system.Secondly,the Journal China Traveler published from 1927,and since then is the time called “Golden Decade”,at that time the government pay much more attention to national construction in the fields of economy,transportation and new life movement,so that the travel business has developed normally and rapidly.Thirdly,after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War,although domestic travel has not been interrupted,but due to the influence of the situation,travel has been endowed with political significance such as "saving the country" and "saving the economic national hardship",which is quite different from leisure travel.This paper takes the travel notes published in China traveler and other newspapers and magazines from 1927 to 1936 as the core historical materials.In order to return to the living period of new urban intellectuals in the Mid-Republic of China,and explore the travel motivation,travel route and travel perception by their own records.Combining the microscopic observations with the macroscopic background,then try to describe truthfully the domestic travel activities in the mid-period of the Republic of China.In addition,understand the social conditions,lifestyles and psychological changes in that period comprehensively and truly.The main framework of this paper contains three parts.Each part contains three chapters,and the full text consists of nine chapters.The first chapter in the first part: Analyzing the identity characteristics of the authors who published travel notes in China traveler from 1927 to 1936,and their travel companions as well as other travelers encountered by the author during the trip.The study found that they have the similar characteristics: Firstly,their careers are mainly university professors,primary and secondary school teachers,editors and journalists of publishers and newspapers,government civil servants,entrepreneurs and practitioners in industry and commerce,and freelancers such as doctors,lawyers,painters and writers.Secondly,they have generally received modern education,especially university education.Thirdly,most of them have the experiences of studying abroad or inspecting overseas.Fourthly,the places that they live are mostly cities in the eastern regions and along the Yangtze River in the central.This group is the main research object of this paper-the new intellectual group.The second chapter in the first part: By analyzing the travel motivation which recorded by the authors in their travel notes that published in China traveler from 1927 to 1936,we found that the reasons can divided into leisure travel,official business visits and returning to hometown.Among them,the reason of leisure travel accounted for the largest proportion.However,in the travel notes for reasons of official business visits and returning to hometown,the authors also expressed their motivation for taking a leisure travel by the way.There are many kinds of subjective motives for leisure travel,such as “have a passion for traveling”,“satisfy admiration”,“spend leisure time”,“avoid summer heat”,“regain health”,“honeymoon” and so on.The third chapter in the first part: Based on the analysis of the travel motivation recorded by the authors themselves,continue to explore the reasons for their motivations.Then the study found that the macro reason is the urbanization after the modernization.Specific reasons including: the boom in urban entertainment,the emergence of “urban diseases”,the concentration of leisure under the new vacation system,more opportunities for official inspection with the new career system,as well as the “overseas experience” and the travel activities of foreigners in China,which lead the trend of leisure travel.The micro reasons are personal hobbies,overseas experience,leisure,health expectations and so on.The fourth chapter in the second part: Analysis the distribution of travel destinations in China year by year,according to the 536 travel notes that published in China traveler from 1927 to 1936.Then analysis the distribution of travel destinations in each province,according to the 465 travel notes which destinations only in one province.Then found that the distribution characteristics of travelers’ destinations in the whole country at that time were gradually expanding from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to the central and western regions,thus dividing the whole country’s traveling areas into central areas,diffusion areas and border areas.The fifth chapter in the second part: According to the travelers’ destination in each year and each province that concluded in the fourth chapter,continue to analysis the characteristics of distribution and found the characteristics including the dotted distribution features,the linear distribution feature,and circle layer distribution characteristics.The dotted distribution features mainly reflect that the distribution is mainly concentrated in the location of mountains,waters and historical sites.The linear distribution features mainly distributed along the traffic lines and along the river and the coast.The distribution characteristics of the circle layer mainly reflected in the city-centered outward diffusion,and the distribution shows a decreasing trend from the center to outer layer.The sixth chapter in the second part: Exploring the main reasons and driving factors for the formation of the temporal and spatial characteristics of the distribution,and dividing the reasons into three aspects: Firstly,the government leads the construction of scenic spots,the donation of local bureaucrats,and the spontaneous participation of local residents.Secondly,the development of modern transportation.Thirdly,the rise of modern hotels and the diversity of accommodation facilities,including: as well as the establishment of China Travel Service.The seventh chapter in the third part: At the end of the journey,the travelers often have some thoughts about the meaning of travel.Analysis such records in the travel notes written by the authors,found the traveler’s perception about the meaning of travel including two parts: The first is inherit the tradition,such as the value of travel in education,society and health.The second is the realization of the efficacy in curing “urban diseases” in the context of modern urbanization,and “Patriotic” thinking in a particular historical context.The eighth chapter in the third part: With the development of travel activities,the travel business began to be concerned and attracted the attention of scholars of the Republic of China.Scholars of the Republic of China believe that the development of tourism is an “invisible output” and “has benefit for the local economy”,which is also conducive to “social friendship” and “goodwill of national relations”,“promotion of culture”,“rise the enterprising spirit”,and conducive to patriotism.Continue to explore the reasons why the scholars discuss the significance of the travel business.Then found that it was influenced by the Western culture and on the purpose of saving the economic difficulties.They expected to attract overseas tourists to witness the development of China and the goodness of the Chinese people.In respond to negative publicity from other country and obtain the qualifications of modern countries.The ninth chapter in the third part: Scholars actively explored the value and significance of China’s travel business.It has gone through three stages : phenomenal description and experience summary of the travel development in other countries;exploration of multiple values and specific paths of developing travel business,such as propaganda,solicitation and reception;theoretical summary of developing travel business represented by She Guitang.Based on quantitative statistics and qualitative analysis of domestic travel notes published in China Travel from 1927 to 1936,this paper summarizes the domestic travel activities of new urban intellectuals in the Middle Period of the Republic of China,including their travel motivation,destination distribution,and travel concept..In order to explore the human-earth interaction relationship reflected in modern travel activities.Then explore the formation of Chinese modern life style from the perspective of travel.