Images Of Chinese People In Mark Twain’s Works

Mark Twain is one of the American writers who had been introduced to China very early, and his works are quite familiar to Chinese readers. Lots of his works concern Chinese people and China, such as his anti-imperialist writings, open letters, speeches and novels. Through analyzing Mark Twain’s these works, this thesis discusses Mark Twain’s China complex, Chinese coolie image and opium-smoker image. Mark Twain showed great sympathy for Chinese people and supported Chinese people’s anti-imperialist struggles. He praised Chinese coolies in the United States, despised American society’s racial discrimination and proved sympathetic to Chinese people’s marginalized lives in the United States. Chinese images in Mark Twain’s works are objective and real, which reflect Chinese people’s sufferings, struggles, marginalization, helpless and their courage to make living in the United States on one hand. On the other hand, Chinese images reflect the tyranny of the aggressors.