The Paradox Of Maugham's View On China

Maugham, William Somerset (1874～1965), one of the most popular English writers in the 20th century, is well-known for his magnificent skill in telling an exotic story. In his 65 years' career as a man of letters, he has published a large number of works, including novels, short stories and plays. As a well-traveled author, exotic settings constitute the unique artistic demeanor of Maugham's works, which has made him very popular both home and abroad. However, in most domestic literary critical works, Maugham is given only brief comments or just ignored. Domestic studies on Maugham's novels concentrate on the thematic issues, narrative style and technical achievements of several of his well-known novels. As for his less famous fictions, general comments on its thematic study are available, while detailed case studies are rarely seen. The oversea research on Maugham is also in disequilibrium. Various facets of his novels, short stories and dramas come into essays, dissertations and monographs of both academic critics and non-academic reviewers, while his essays and travelogues are usually overlooked. Post-colonial research prevails in western critics of Maugham's works, and he is labeled either anti-colonial or pro-colonial. In the case of The Painted Veil, Maugham is read in a new perspective and his contradictory attitude towards China is unveiled in this paper.The present study focuses on The Painted Veil, applying the approaches of textual analysis and textual comparison to study the mixed attitude of Maugham towards China. This thesis holds that due to the influence of the social-historical context and his personal experience, Maugham expresses a paradoxical view on China in The Painted Veil. On the one hand, he is enchanted with Chinese civilization of long standing; on the other hand, cultural superiority and colonial consciousness towards China is inevitably deep-rooted in his mind.Based on detailed textual analysis of The Painted Veil with Edward Said's Orientalism as its major theoretical support, this thesis explores image of China and Chinese people in the novel. To explain Maugham's paradoxical attitude towards China, an analysis of the images of China in British Literature of various periods is combined with a study of the author's yearning for oriental culture. Having been to China himself, Maugham presents a China with beautiful natural scenery, magnificent ancient culture and mysterious oriental women. On the other hand, influenced by British long-held assumption of China and "Yellow Peril", Maugham's ingrained cultural superiority and colonial masculinity still separate the Orient and the Occident.This thesis is probably the first attempt in China to make an detailed research of Maugham's The Painted Veil, and a relatively thorough exploration of his conflicting attitude towards China:a glorious China with ancient civilization parallel with a China impoverished and undeveloped.