A Study Of R.F.Johnston's Travel Accounts Of China.With A Focus On His From Peking To Mandalay(1908)

Reginald Fleming Johnston is one of the most influential sinologists in the late 19th and early 20th century.However,for a long time,Johnston has always been known as the English teacher of the Last Emperor(Pu Yi)of Qing dynasty rather than a sinologist.So far except the Twilight in the Forbidden City,the research on other works of Johnston is scarce,especially the research on his travel notes From Peking to Mandalay:a journey from north China to Burma through Tibetan Ssuch'uan and Yunnan is still very limited.Therefore,the research object of the paper will mainly focus on Johnston's travel notes-Frorm Peking to Mandalay.Firstly,this paper will give a brief introduction to Johnston and the From Peking to Mandalay.The introduction to Johnston will be divided into six parts according to chronological order:the British period(1874-1898),the Hong Kong period(1898-1904),the Weihaiwei period(1904-1919),the Forbidden City period(1919-1926),the period of returning to Weihaiwei(1927-1930)and the period in University of London's School of Oriental Studies(1930-1938).As for the From Peking to Mandalay,the introduction will focus on the book's main contents,writing background,structure and writing reasons.Secondly,this paper will describe the images of China in the From Peking to Mandalay following the sequence of Johnson's routes(Beijing,Sichuan,Yunnan,etc.).At the same time,I will compare these images to the western images of China described in other travel notes of the same period in order to analyze the reasons of images written by Johnston.Lastly,through the comparison of the From Peking to Mandalay with the Across China on Foot and the Yunnan:The Link Between the India and Yangtze River,I try to analyze the characteristics of the From Peking to Mandalay and to further study the relations between these characteristics and the development of sinology.