Comparison Of Chinese Images In The Eyes Of Temple And Defoe

This paper intends to reinterpret Chinese image created at the turn of 17^th and 18^th by two British men of letters: Temple and Defoe. The analysis of economic and political balance of power between China and England as well as the cultural ideals of the writers serves to reveal the reason why Temple and Defoe presented two drastically different China. The thesis points out the fact that the increase of strength in western country goes with the expansion of Eurocentrism. Western attitudes toward Chinese civilization accordingly change from commendation and admiration to criticism and derogation.The paper firstly stresses the great role that imagology plays in Sino-Foreign literary and cultural exchanges. Subsequently it gives a brief introduction to the two authors' lives and experiences as well as the research that the predecessors had done about Chinese subjects in their works. Then it goes on to describe the disparities of Chinese images they created. Through the parallel contrasts we can see that the two writers held different opinions toward Chinese city, architecture, commerce, culture and religion.Finally the paper puts emphasis on the influence of Sino-British balance of power upon the construct of different Chinese images. It also illustrates that the creation of foreign images is affected by the writers' political views, religious faiths and cultural ideals.The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that as for British men of letters China is rather a myth than a geographical existence. It is more exactly an "other" alien to the western world. Their reviews on China are inevitably bound by the writers' cultural backgrounds, observational angles and ideological ideas. Chinese images are not necessarily equal to the reality of China, which is a universal phenomenon of the reception of foreign cultures. It is an important issue we should pay attention to during Sino-British cultural exchanges.