The Image Of China In Ding Weiliang’s Works

This thesis aims at analyzing the image of China in Ding Weiliang’s (William Alexander Parsons Martin) works from the theoretical perspective of comparative imagology①. As a missionary, the image of China shaped in Ding Weiliang’s works is undoubtedly the other image composed by the imaginary gaze and the gaze effect②. In other words, the image of China in his works reflects the hints of the imaginary gaze from the western discourse hegemony, at the same time, it also suggests the great and practical significance of the gaze effect, which implies the ideal ego image of China only can be realized and accomplished through cross-cultural communication.Secondly, taking the misreading strategy, he shapes the image of China in accordance with the colonial conduct and discourse hegemony to achieve the goals of the assimilation, westernization and Christianization of the Chinese culture. Thirdly, through the means of cultural symbols and metaphorical texts, he tries to camouflage and beautify the colonial actions. In other words, through the description of the future blueprint of China, he attempts to beautify the colonialists as the rescuers and devotees for China’s safety, survival, revival and self-improvement. Specifically speaking, as a missionary, Ding Weiliang makes use of his narrative texts to reflect the empirical discourse hegemony and symbols by three main approaches. First, he applies negative and demonized description of the image of China in the context of western discourse hegemony.In view of this situation, the thesis points out that the image of China in Ding Weiliang’s works not only has the theoretical significance in the value domain of imagology, but also has the reflective③and practical revelation to construct the image of China in cross-cultural communication.