From The Novel To The Movies

In the second half of the19th century, the Sinomania was gradually fading inFrance. At that time, Jules Verne who is nowadays known as the Father of ScienceFiction, wrote the novel Les Tribulations dun Chinois en Chine (1879), of which thebackground was China. The science fiction elements occupy less space in the novel,instead describing the details and the vivid imagination of China. It is the first novelin which the hero is a Chinese man and the story also happens in China at the firsttime, which is written by the western writer. This novel was translated into Chineseby Wang Rencai and Bao Zhuoxian (William Butcher) in2010.The novel Les Tribulations dun Chinois en Chine, the French and Chinese filmadaptations are the main objects of study. The study is also combined with theChinese translation and the relevant English and French literatures, in whichimageology on comparative literature and translation theories are used asmethodology. The thesis starts from a review on Verne’s life of writing, thetranslations and introductions of his works in China, and then moves to the study onVerne’s description of China. Comparing the original edition to the Chinese one isfollowed. The drama of the story and the movie adaptations as the transmissionand acceptance are the last part to be discussed. The French movie Les Tribulationsdun Chinois en Chine and the Chinese one The Tribulations of a Chinese Gentleman,both as the adaptations of the novel, regard as the spread of the images are broughtinto the study. The comparison of the host culture and the guest culture, describingthe relationship between Verne and China, sketching the image of China and itsChanges of the novel, and exploring the West how to understand China and theChinese people to imagine the reaction to him, all of them are to understand theimage of China from Europeans at the end of the19th century and even the20thcentury, and to recognize the Sino-French cultural interaction from Verne’s work.A circulating path of the images of China from the late19th century to the late20th century as follows: from the travel notes to the novel, from the novel to theplays and movies. Another way is from the travellers those who come to China to the ones who imagined about China, and to the Chinese people themselves. Verne’snovel describing China inherits the18th century European tradition of the Sinomaniain popular culture and material culture. The novel Les Tribulations dun Chinois enChine embodies Verne’s originality in the creative aspects of writing adventurestories in a Chinese context. The French movie Les Tribulations dun Chinois en Chineupgrades an adventure story to a more entertaining western farce, which is the resultgoing with the tide of “La Nouvelle Vague”. The Chinese one changes the adventurestory into a frolic self-described narrative, which is related to the controversybetween the Theme Movie and the Entertainment Movie in the history of Chinesefilms. A story in the view of Chinese people, experienced a circulation as Self-Other-Self, forming an annular route of cultural exchanges between Chinese and foreigncontexts. In this process, the images of Late Qing shaped by Verne show threedifferent features from the novel itself and the other adaptations, such as “theAdventure Kingdom”,“the Western Carnival” and “the Fictional Memories”, whichreflect the differences between understanding and self-awareness from the point ofview of literature and art. From imagining China to Chinese imagination, China’simage has undergone a dynamic change in the tension field of “othernessself-oriented” and “self-othering”. Ultimately, a definite and imaginative China’simage fades along with the changes of the artists’ identifications, the weakening ofhistorical description and the breakthroughs of the art expression.