Image Of Europe In The Chinese Travel Writing On Europe In 1912-1949

Although travel writing have been existing since ancient times in China,since the late qing dynasty,with the development of traffic between China and the West,under the background of the conflict of traditional and modern,local and western culture,overseas traveling and writing suddenly came to the fore,instead of the traditional describing landscapes' travel writing,became a new style in combination of realistic and freehand brushwork.Overseas travel writing in the late Qing Dynasty mainly focused on the overseas description of envoys.In the Republic of China period,many politicians,industrialists,soldiers,artists and experts from all walks of life went to Europe to visit,and the number of students studying in Europe reached the historical peak.The number of students studying in Europe is not as many as the number of students studying in the United States and Japan.However,Europe is the headstream of western civilization,and Chinese students in Europe are also an important part of Chinese overseas students.All kinds of Chinese people worked,studied,visited and traveled in Europe,and create a large number of European travel writing,which records the observation,understanding and imagination of the Chinese people to Europe at that time.Along with the prosperity of the modern publishing industry,these travel writing have been widely disseminated among intellectuals and even the general public,which has influenced the European impression of Chinese people for more than 100 years.The purpose of this study is to analysis,research and explain the travel writing all over again,and investigate the travel experience of people in Europe at the time,and explained their European impression and imagination.What's more,to take Europe as the mirror,Chinese travelers re-examined and narrated of China,and imagined the world and China's future prospect.The thesis is divided into seven chapters.In the first chapter,the thesis systematically researches the literature of the travel writing of the Republic of China period,thus describes the general situation and features of the travel writing.In terms of the scope of the travels,these travel writing can be divided into three categories:the first is about the Europe travels in the world tour;the second category is about the West Europe travels and the Soviet Union travels;the third category is about travels in one country or several countries in Europe.If being divided by the type of the travels,the travels can be divided into two main types:one is visit travels;the other kind is the cultural travels.From the second to the seventh chapter,according to the travelers'travel time in Europe,taking the representative people of different historical stages as the main examples,the thesis try to research the study of Chinese intellectuals travels in Europe from the beginning of the 20th century to the World War ?,and discusses European image,European concept and the ffuture imagination of China and other issues in the travel writing.The second chapter investigates Liang Qichao's travel experience in Europe,his change of civilization view after the travel and the understanding of the "national character" of the three major European countries---England,France and Germany.In 1903,Liang's travel experience of the United States makes his political ideas change from the sympathetic revolution to the constitutional monarchy.In 1919,Liang Qichao drew his political career and went to Europe to self-sponsored visit.In Europe,he realized the limitation of scientific civilization.He began to advocate the harmonic civilization view between east and west,and integrated the western individualism into his New Citizen Thoughts.Liang was also the first to focus on the national character of European countries.His understanding of the national character of England and France and Germany was not only from the observation during the trip,but also influenced by the national character discussed in the popular "collective psychology"at that time.The third chapter takes Zou Lu as the example and analyzes the observation of European education in the Europe travel writing in the Republic of China period.As the president of Sun Yat-Sen University,Zou Lu examined the educational systems of countries around the world.Based on his own traditional education concepts,he put forward the opinions of advocating practical education,increasing education expense and other ways to develop education.At the same time,as a significant figure in the Kuomintang,he advocated learning from the West in political and social construction and developing public facilities.He also established the national construction concept that learning from the European countries and America.However,in the civilization view,he advocated maintaining the traditional Confucianism and learning the advantages of Western countries,which was accord with Liang's harmonic civilization view to some extent.The fourth chapter discusses Chu Anping's understanding of English people and nationality of English,and the analysis of the Chinese people and Chinese national character.In the book British Records,Chu Anping systematically discusses from the dynasty successions,the origin of congress,liberal tradition history,and the history of local autonomy,to the British race,temperament,customs,characters,climate,lifestyle and eating habits.In the discussion of British history,he usually adopts the comment of the British and French philosophes and liberalist,which indicates that he strongly approves of the enlightenment and.liberal spirit.Chu Anping compared China with England in many cultural respects in the book as well.The strong concern about reality makes him often compared historical or imaginary England with the reality of China,and regarded the differences as the essential of the two countries.The fifth chapter takes Wang Lixi as an example to discuss the observation of West Europe and the Soviet Union by leftist intellectuals.Before he went abroad,he accepted Marxism and used it as a tool to understand the world.While he was living abroad,he focused on the economic problems of Britain and France,believing that unemployment,poverty and prostitution were the three most serious problems of capitalism.He appreciates the British culture and has built a good personal friendship with British and French writers' group.However,he has a leftist political attitude,and he does not think that capitalism is the way out for China and the future world.Wang's Russia travel writing are part of the constitution of the Soviet utopian image of Chinese tourists and writers in the 1930s.He understands Soviet Russia from the new physical landscape of the Soviet Union,and see the hope for the Soviet union to solve the inherent contradictions of capitalism from the cultural publishing and women's liberation.Like many of the "Pro-soviet person" and "fan of the Soviet Union" in the 1930s,he observe the Soviet Union with a preconceived theory and ideal,which lead him to look for evidence to prove that the way of Soviet Union is right.His Russian travel writing reflect a striking Utopian color.The sixth chapter researches Zou Taofen's travel writing on North America,West Europe and the Soviet Union.In the book Ping Zong Ji Yu,he associated China's fate with the fate of the world.He studied Amber's status in the western society and the situation of blacks in the America,and supposed that the United States is a country on the verge of bankruptcy.Prostitution was common in Western society,which made him astonish and anger.The experience in Italy and Germany made him see the evil of fascism.The experience in Europe and the United States convinced him that he should reject the path of capitalism.However,the Soviet Union travel writing show the right way for China.No matter where he went to in the Soviet Union,he praised the people self-sacrifice,fear and enthusiasm.The Soviet Union provides him the vision of ideal country,and intellectuals can also take part in and become a member of the general public.Taofen's travel writing reflect the demands for nationalism,racism and idealism of Chinese intellectuals in 1930s.We can also find how the reality of foreign country came to China after the intellectuals filtered out.The seventh chapter focuses on the overseas reports written by Xiao Qian in 1940s.Xiao Qian has been a famous writer and mature reporter since he was in China.During the Second World War,he lived in Britain and sent back massive wartime reports,which recorded how the British army and the people fought together in the war.He was also China's only war correspondent who interviewed Europe Later in the war.Xiao Qian analyzed democracy,education,economic independence of Switzerland,he tried to find out why this small country could keep peaceful and wealthy in the war.His explanation is somewhat idealistic.However,to some extent,it also demonstrated the change of perspective of Europe in Chinese people's eyes,and the change of which was the ideal country.The Europe travel writing during the period of the Republic of China can be seen as a clamorous discourse field.With different backgrounds,classes,political positions,values,thinking,visit time and tour route,the travelers observe,think and discuss the same or similar object in this field.The various concept conflicts,opposing values,ideological differences and the different perspectives are presented to the readers.However,it is also the wide variety of the travel writing that show the diverse thinking of the Chinese people on the problems of China,and its relation with Europe and the world at that time.