Justin Hill's Appreciation Of And Alienation From The Chinese Culture As Reflected By The Drink And Dream Teahouse

Imagology focuses on the representation of the images of other countries in a nation's literature. Based on the theory of imagology, the study concentrates on The Drink and Dream Teahouse by Justin Hill, and explores how he shaped the image of China and why he did so. After analyzing the internal text and external context of the novel, it is argued that Hill's appreciation of and alienation from the Chinese culture affects his shaping of the image of China. On the one hand, Hill's appreciation of the Chinese culture is revealed through the following three aspects:the lexicon indicating his appreciation of some Chinese cultural factors, including the lexicon reflecting his autobiographical image Da Shan, and three categories of the characters'names; his ideal image Da Shan created by combining contrasting relations; and his assimilation of the Chinese language shown in the plot built by a wide span of intertextuality, which was made up of lyrics of Beijing Opera, the Chinese poetry and proverbs, and Pidgin English. On the other hand, Hill's alienation from the Chinese culture is released through the following two aspects:the lexicon displaying his alienation from the Chinese culture, including the lexicon reflecting certain Western stereotypes of China, and the lexicon indicating that he reflected on the British culture by writing China; and the opposition between the Chinese culture and the British culture shown by creating contrasting relations, including the contrasting characters created to sharpen the opposition, and Hill's extensive cultural representations of food, ceremonies of politeness and hospitality, and funerals in Shaoyang, to show the oddity of the Chinese culture in his eyes and its opposition to the British culture.Hill's contradictory attitudes towards the Chinese culture may be rendered by the following factors:the spiritual and practical significances of the Chinese culture for him may account for his appreciation of some Chinese cultural factors, while his limited experience in China and his British cultural background may mainly explain his alienation from the Chinese culture. Hill has absorbed some elements of the Chinese culture to nourish his spiritual world and expand his writing career, but his five years' life in China did not seem to be long enough for him to fully understand the Chinese culture. Meanwhile, to give the Western readers both a surprise and a sense of familiarity, he based his creative writing on certain Western social collective imagination of China and some British values. Therefore, the above factors may explain Hill's contradictory attitudes towards the Chinese culture, or both his appreciation of and alienation from the Chinese culture.From the perspective of imagology, the study reveals Hill's contradictory attitudes towards the Chinese culture behind the image of China shaped in the novel, and the underlying reasons. Various Chinese cultural elements appeared in the novel. Some reality of the Chinese society during the process of development, and some misrepresentation and misreading of the Chinese society and culture, were also shown up. From the above image of China shaped by Hill, we may get a chance to review the treasure of our own culture, and reflect on some problems which have arisen during the development of our own society from a critical perspective. Meanwhile, we may also find some challenges facing the cross-cultural communication in the 21st Century. Behind Hill's misrepresentation and misreading of the Chinese society and culture, some Western social collective imagination of China and a factor hindering effective cultural exchange—judging the other culture with one's own cultural criteria, were also reflected. However, by writing China, Hill expressed his concern about and criticism of his home country, to complement and expand the culture of "self. The interaction between the Chinese culture and the British culture may be thus shown in the novel.