Imagining The West: A Study Of The Mirror Image Of Extraterritorial Cities In Modern Literature

The Images of Western cities in Modern Literature are the cognition and imagination of elite intellectuals in late Qing Dynasty in the context of collision andcommunication between Chinese and western civilizations,and is a barometer of the relationship between China and the western countries.To some extent,as a kind of imagination to the "he",it is also an objective depiction of the reality of western society.But this depiction,with a lot of emotional factors and imaginative processes,is not a true reflection of the accuracy of the local culture in the foreign cities.In such a complex cognitive process,whether the superficiality or defacing cognition,or idealized imagination,or rational objective awareness,it reflects the modern social intellectual elite cognitive or understanding of the western cities in western society "collective imagination",and for evaluation of their own civilization and the attitude of the relations between Chinese and western.Therefore,the images of the western cities in modern literature are themselves a mirror,Where we can see how Chinese civilization uses "native" cultural resources to construct "foreign cities",and can also see the misreading elements;Where we can not only see how the changing images of foreign civilization have been used in the history of Chinese and Western culture,but can also see the rational and non ideal factors.In the view of intellectuals in the late Qing Dynasty,western cities were not only a geogrphical "he",but also imitative objects and models in a cultural sense.When the intellectuals of the late Qing Dynasty faced more developed foreign cities,personal awareness and emotions about the national family were bound to be intertwined,which made foreign cities embody a complex cultural implication.In the different styles of modern literature relating to extraterritorial writing,many late Qing Qynasty diplomats and intellectuals mainly focused on the following aspects about foreign cities they constructed:The first is the presentation of city landscape,namely,the architectural features,street layout and pedestrian features of the exotic cities,which are the objects described by the writers.The second is the developed science and technology civilization,the culture education,the historical sites,the public cultural space and the ethics,folk customs and the food and clothing of the people who reflect the characteristics of the urban civilization,etc.Finally,features of cities or social political systems,such as customs,parliaments and political parties and the Chinese in western countries.Of course,the emphasis of each style in the process of writing extraterritorial cities was different,for example,the modern poetry was more about the extraterritorial cultural and human landscape.Modern travel notes focued on the western advanced technological civilization,culture,education and political system;The modern novels focused on the psychological feelings and behavior of the Chinese people before the western civilization.Therefore,this paper,beginning with the year of 1840,and ending with the thriving of the May 4 New Culture Movement in 1917,through the specific study of modern literature in poetry,travelogues,novels,reveals different writers in their works in the western city of cognitive differences,and explores the different attitudes and feelings they are performing in the face of different western city scene,and behind the refraction of the deep cultural implication.In short,western cities in modern literature show the complex characteristics of localization,singularity,demonization and idealization,and reflect the mixed emotions of the intellectuals in late Qing Dynasty.Western cities are not only the carriers of European powers invading China,but also the example of intellectuals learning and imitating in the late Qing Qynasty.At the same time,in modern literature,travel notes,poetry,novels and other styles that reflected exotic cities were widely spread among the Chinese due to their exotic content,narratives localization and concise language.The construction of the Utopia in modern literature reflected diversified knowledge and imagination of late Qing Dynasty intellectuals about western cities,embodied the collective unconsciousness of Chinese intellectuals in the serious national crisis,and had great significance about establishing an independent nation.