China, As A Source Of Inspiration

People are travelling to experience other countries and peoples. They try to escape from everyday life. Many people write travelogues. They can be both, literary works and sources for cultural contacts. Travelogues are among the oldest and most popular writings and are still common. The representation of a journey in written language has a long tradition. Travelogues primarily show the authors personal experiences and views. Furthermore they should provide information about the country.People know most foreign cultures by reputation only, they have an "image" of foreign cultures, whether they know people of this foreign culture or not. Even so, most people recognize a certain disposition as being "typical" for people of the foreign culture. This phenomena can be seen in media such as television, newspapers and travelogues. Travelogues often use different kinds of images for foreign countries, regions, cities, cultures and societies. The so created images have been examined in various articles in diverse areas of research. The Image Research at itself is a important field for intercultural studies. These images may lead to stereotypes, which are often described as general ideas or assumptions about the characteristics of people from another culture. Stereotypes can always be both, negative and positive. There are, of course, different ways to express ideas of another culture.For the last centuries China has always been an inspiration for writers and travelers. Many images of China and it's culture and society originate in travel literature. Readers are sometimes unaware of prevailing stereotypes about another culture in literature or take it as a granted knowledge. That's why it is important to critically analyze any information about a foreign culture in travelogues. This involves looking for stereotypes used in those written documents. When analyzing travel literature it is always important to keep in mind that the written words are the authors personal reflections. Many scholars analyzed the image of China and the reporting of China in newspapers and magazines. Travelogues about China have rarely been analyzed and if so, those were mostly ancient travelogues. Due to that fact I want to try to fill this gap.In my Master thesis I will write about the issue "China as a source of inspiration in travelogues". The aim of my master thesis is to have a closer look at the image of China and the used Stereotypes. The following main objectives should be explored:1.To provide a broad overview of the research undertaken in the scientific field of travel literature and stereotypes.2.To provide a broad overview of the image of China in Germany.3.To introduce the reader to the travelogues of Marcel Bergmann and Christian Y. Schmidt and have a closer look at the used Stereotypes and images of China.4.To make a comparison between those two travelogues.The master thesis is subdivided into three major sections. After giving an introduction, where I present background information to allow the reader to get an understanding of the context and the significance of the questions, a theoretical sections acts as an introduction into the scientific research of travel literature and travelogues, stereotypes and the image of China in Germany. This section is followed by a practical section where two travelogues are introduced to the reader one by one. The final major section contains the comparison of the two travelogues and the analysis of the images of China.Furthermore the author will define travel literature and travelogues. The Travelogue at itself is a subgenre of travel literature and is understood as a type of text which is recording the experiences and views of travelers. Travelogues are given in the form of narrative. Due to the fact that many authors use stereotypes while writing travelogues, the term will be discussed in the theoretical part. Therefore I will discuss diverse definitions of this term. For contextualizing it is important to take a look at the image of China in Germany. Images of China have a long history in Germany. Even back in ancient times images of the foreign country can be found. In the process of time and through social and historical changes images are always changing. A clear delimitation between them is not always possible. In analyzing the different images of China it is possible to understand the zeitgeist of each period. The images are often combined with political and social views and use many stereotypes. Some stereotypes are used within different periods and are anchored in the public perception until now. To compound this theory, I will analyze two modern travelogues which were written in the 21th century by the German authors Marcel Bergmann and Christian Y. Schmidt. The thesis analyses the following questions. Which specific Stereotypes of China are shown in the travelogues? Which sources were used by the authors to get a knowledge of China? Will the image change during the journey?The analysis revealed that the authors used different Expressions and methods to describe the foreign country. Bergmann, who traveled to China for the first time, tried to be more objective than Schmidt. Because of his disability and his friend Ham as a travel companion he experienced a different China than Schmidt. Altogether he was impressed and fascinated by China and especially it's people. Both authors wanted to get to know China and its population. The journey is not only a journey to another country, but also a journey to themselves. Both authors changed during the trip and got to know themselves better. They discovered their limits as well as their own possibilities. Both travelogues are narrative and contain autobiographical elements. The master thesis showed that both authors used stereotypes. Some of those stereotypes can be dated back in 18th century like the stereotype of the polite and friendly Chinese. Schmidt furthermore uses many generalizations for describing China and its people. From the beginning to the end he admires many things about China. The master thesis showed that travelogues contain many Stereotypes about another country which can be dated back in time, but also are written in different style and manner.