The Construction Of The Image Of China In A Transcultural Framework

Imagology is a term of comparative literature,which refers to the study of erotic images from another country,nation or race,it is in essence the subject speaking about itself or making metaphors about itself with the help of exotic materials.Obviously it is not necessarily that these images are true and full representation of the original images.If we want to understand the images of a particular nation via imagology,we need to use theories of imagology to study on the self-reflective images created by the native writers of the country.Such an inclusion is especially necessary and significant in the study of the image of China,for the international community led by the western world still has many misconception towards China.This dissertation chooses three major writers of contemporary China to carry out its research about the global image of China:Wang Meng,Mo Yan and Yu Hua.The three writers are chosen for their international influence as well as their status in Chinese literature today.Based on layers of close reading into their classical works,this dissertation explores the theme of the construction of the image of China by contemporary Chinese literature,problems arising from such a construction and future tendencies of image constructing.This dissertation consists of three parts:the introduction part,the main part which is made up of four chapters and the epilogue part.The introduction part mainly presents the meanings of the theme and relevant concepts.The main point is that in the framework of global vision,the participation of the discipline of the Chinese Contemporary Literature into the study and spreading of the image of China is both legal and necessary.The space and possibility of my research are also presented in this part.Chapter One is an overview of my research.It is a historical review about the construction and spreading of the image of China since the beginning of the 20th century,which is also the starting time of the development of Chinese contemporary literature.Influenced by the social trends of different ages,the imagination about China in the literary world varies and presents different images,from the modernist self-alienation and self-orientalism to the contemporary moving from the monotonous and the essentialized into the multi-dimensional representation.The construction of the image of China carries the Chinese people's dream for reformation and development,and such writings have indeed brought about certain influence to the outside world.However,they are facing more challenges and frustration.Chapter Two is an analysis into Wang Meng's construction of the image of China and the spreading of his work in the world.As a mainstream writer of China,Wang Meng's representation of China has gone through different stages,from the native's acceptance of the outside's eyes to the native's conscious self-construction.He is a typical example showing the subjectivity of China's mainstream awareness,and his images of China are obviously different from the heterogeneous images of China frequently discussed in the previous imagology.Mainstream as he is in China,he is somewhat marginalized in the foreign countries,which reflects the trans-cultural challenge facing China's mainstream production.Chapter Three is an analysis into Mo Yan's construction of the image of China and the spreading of his work in the world.As a writer of the grass-root people's life,Mo Yan shows to us the feelings and spirits of the common people with his creative literary skills,the part of China which is not mentioned in national history.His representation of China is a high level integration of the native and the universal.Thus he has gained great recognition in the other countries.However,Mo Yan's Nobel Prize should not be optimistically taken as a sign indicating that the Chinese contemporary literature has gone deeply into the world's literature.Actually,the spreading of contemporary Chinese literature is far behind our expectation.Chapter Four is an analysis into Yu Hua's construction of the image of China and the spreading of his work in the world.As a representative of China's intellectual writers,Yu Hua's works feature in allegory,be it his early works of avant garde or his later works of realistic writing.What Yu Hua tries to show is an anthropological thinking on the beings of the Chinese people,and his anthropological thinking has transcended the dead cognition and cliches about China in the field of imagology.Though his worldwide influence is undeniable,Yu Hua has his limitations and faces the challenge of transcending himself.The final Epilogue is a discussion about the future development of the construction and spreading of the image of China.The world has entered into a new epoch after globalization,yet Chinese literature still hold only limited influence in the world.We should try to transcend the old limitations and explore the ways to set up more balanced relationship with the outside world,then we might be able to update our images of China to the time.