An Investigation Of Japan's National Image In World Expositions In The Early Meiji Period

The early Meiji period was a key period when Japan is actively carrying out modern national construction,and participation in World Expo is just an important content of it.Concerning the theme of World Expo in the early Meiji period,the academic studies mainly discuss from aspects of technological civilization,cultural and recreational facilities as well as the propaganda tool of imperialist.However,there are few researches which have a systematic and comprehensive analysis of Japan's national image construction in the early Meiji period by taking World Expo as a medium of display space.Nowadays,Japanese government is forcefully practicing the policy of COOL JAPAN,aimed at advertising its national culture and promoting industrial development;while in the early Meiji period when the international exchange was not quite developed,most countries usually participated in World Expo to advertise national image and improve their international standing.By investigating Japan's national image in World Expo in this stage,it is helpful for us to know about Japan's self-propaganda and external policy in the early Meiji period.The thesis focuses on the five times World Expo in the early Meiji period and puts a particular emphasis to the Japan's national image,on purpose of clarifying the processes in the construction of Japan's national image in World Expo and its characteristics.The reports of World Expo,personal records,as well as the research about World Expo and Japan's national image will be used in the thesis.The specific content is as follows.In chapter one,it firstly introduces two major methods of exhibiting national image in World Expo,and that is,showing industrial civilization and its unique culture.World Expo centering on Europe and America is not only a best place to demonstrate advanced industrial civilization but also an important stage of showing exotic culture especially eastern culture.In the World Expo in the early Meiji period,on the one hand,Japanese government didn't have the advantage in industrial civilization,so it chose to treat it as an opportunity to "study" and "learn from" western cultures;on the other hand,the western countries expected the characteristic Japanese culture to add beauty to cultural diversity of World Expo,and in the late Tokugawa shogun ate,the policy that Japan adopted to show its traditional cultures in World Expo effectively catered to the"expectation" of western countries.Therefore,Meiji Government followed the method of exhibiting Japan's "cultural" items in World Expo.Chapter two gives an analysis of Japan's exhibits in Vienna World Expo in 1873,Philadelphia World Expo in 1876,Paris World Expo in 1878 and 1889 and Chicago World Expo in 1893 in terms of the policy and summary of the exhibits,the construction of the pavilions and the compilation of the introductory pamphlet.During that period,the Meiji government mainly exhibited traditional folk arts,constructed pavilions of Japanese characteristics and compiled pamphlets to introduce Japan's history so as to create a national image of long history and rich culture.In addition,since the Philadelphia World Expo in 1876,the practical use of artifacts accumulated momentum.The Meiji government tried to use these products to open the market of European and American countries so as to increase the volume of its foreign trade and ultimately achieving its goal of enriching the country.With the development of World Expo,the introduction pamphlets became gradually detailed and highlighted Japan's modernized outcome after Meiji restoration;it also showed the characteristics that Meiji government sought internal development of the modernization from ancient ritsuryo legal codes.Chapter three investigates other countries' acceptance of Japan's national image created by the Meiji government in the World Expos through the comments from three countries:France,America and China.The opportunity of World Expo helped Japanese to prevail,which effectively increased the volume of Japan's export trade.However,the government and critics of France pointed out that,it was alarming that under the influence of commercialism,there was a decline in the quality of Japanese artifacts.In America,Japanese artifacts were very popular and America appreciated that Japan followed the path of the western countries.Chinese records of World Expos not only mentioned the exquisite design and high quality of Japanese artifacts but also introduced Japan's advancement of modernization,from which we can get a glimpse of Japan's image of learning from the western countries.The last Chapter,starting from the perspective of modernized development,it examines the relationship between Japan's national image in World Expo and the policy "rich nation and strong army" in the early Meiji period.The ideal national image Meiji Government strove for was a"civilized country" like big powers,and thus was an important step to realize "rich nation and strong army".Under the guidance of the general objective of "rich nation and strong army",Japan's modernization process in Meiji period mainly included the following stages:seeking political legitimacy,economic and military construction and formation of imperialist country.And in the early Meiji period,through the exhibition in World Expo,the national image Japanese government tried to construct had the following features:(1)a new long-standing independent Mikado-centered country with traditional culture;(2)an economic and technological country which actively developed overseas trade and promoted mechanization of domestic industries;(3)an imperialist country like European and American powers to divide world's colonies.That is to say,Japanese national image reflected in World Expo of the earlier Meiji period was basically consistent with Meiji Government's dominant orientation of modernization.