The Construction Of The Author’s Cultural Identity In The Image Creation Of China

With the rise of identity politics,imagology has shifted from “the interpretation of the culture of the other” to “the affirmation of the culture of the self”,and the cultural identity has become the focus of imagology.The image of China is an important part of imagology.In order to explore the cultural elements behind images,this thesis,by taking Arthur H.Smith’s Chinese Characteristics,Gu Hongming’s The Spirit of the Chinese People and Lin Yutang’s My Country and My People as the research texts,compares the three writers on how to construct their cultural identities in image creation within the framework of the theory of imagology and cultural identity.Firstly,the author finds that the images of China depicted in the three works are quite different: in Chinese Characteristics,negative Chinese characters,miserable and uncivilized Chinese women and ineffective and harmful Confucianism shape a dark and gloomy hetero-image of Chinese image;in The Spirit of Chinese People,gentle characters,selfless housewives and great Confucianism present an ideal and perfect auto-image of China;in My Country and My people,good and bad characters,traditional and modern women,secular and romantic Humanistic religion convey an auto-image of China with defects and merits.And then combining the historical and cultural context of each writer’s specific situation,the author explores the three author’s cultural identity: Arthur H.Smith was a native American missionary.National affiliation to America,American social ideology and the influence and experience of Christian culture,all of them determine his strong recognition of American culture;As a returned overseas Chinese,Gu Hongming’s sense of belonging to China,overseas educational experience as well as his work experience with Chinese Confucian bureaucrats contribute to his extreme obsession with Confucian culture;Although born in China,Lin Yutang had been in the Sino-western cultural dimensions for his whole life.His patriotic feelings,western learningexperience and the role of modern intellectual endow him with an objective cultural standpoint and a tolerant cultural attitude,forming his criticism and identification to both the Chinese and Western cultures.Finally,from the perspective of the other,the author explores the three authors’ construction of cultural identity.In creating the image of China,Arthur H.Smith constructs his identification with American cultures by antagonizing and negating China so as to highlight the superiority of Western civilization;Gu Hongming constructs his identification with Chinese Confucian culture by giving positive affirmation to similarities between Chinese and Western cultures and more importantly by presenting China’s superiority over the West;to construct his cultural identification with both Chinese and western cultures,Lin Yutang,on the one hand,views cultural similarities in a neutral manner,and on the other hand,holds both positive and negative attitudes toward the West which is different--affirming the other to reflect on the self and denying the other to affirm the self--in this way to convey the cultural proposition of equality and inclusion.No matter with Arthur H.Smith’s negative image of China,or Gu Hongming’s ideal and perfect image of China,or Lin Yutang’s image of China with good and bad sides,there is a certain cultural foundation,revealing a certain thinking inertia deeply rooted in a culture.Mutual learning is advocated and Sino-western cultural antinomy is discouraged,in order to ultimately promote a harmonious situation with mutual equality,appreciation and respect.Compared with Arthur H.Smith and Gu Hongming,Lin Yutang’s cultural standpoint is more worthy of reference.