A Cultural Other's Representation Of China

The American journalist Peter Hessler is one of the most critical non-fictional writers who pay attention to contemporary China.His famous book River Town won the “Kiriyama Pacific Book Award” as soon as it was publicised.It mainly recorded his experience as a teacher in Fuling in 1996.From the perspective of a Western observer,Hessler reconstructs China by demonstrating Chinese life at the turn of the century.This thesis explores the relationship between man and nature,man and man,as well as man and society from the perspective of ethics,to review the image of Chinese nature,interpersonal relationship and social life Hessler represents in the text.The first part of this thesis explores the relationship between man and nature in the text.By demonstrating the Chinese environmental ethics which takes nature to the centre since ancient times,Hessler depicts a vivid picture of the harmonious coexistence between Chinese people and nature and appreciates it.Meanwhile,developmentalism that Chinese people choose to overuse environment for the development is also demonstrated in the text.Hessler expresses his concerns about the destruction of the harmonious relationship between Chinese and nature.Although there are some limitations in his statement,it still stimulates readers to reconsider the shift of Chinese environmental ethics under the period of reform and opening-up.Based on “ethical identity”,the second part of this thesis deals with the complicated interpersonal relationship in the text to demonstrate a vivid picture of conflicts and reconciliations between Chinese and foreigners.The study argues that when encountering the ethical disputes caused by complex ethical identities,ethical selections made by Chinese people reflect their positive attitude to accommodating new things.Moreover,as a cultural other,the ethical selection he made to integrate into China mainly disintegrates the stereotyped image of China in Westerner's opinion,which reveals a picture of China in the new era.The last part of this thesis focuses on the relationship between Chinese and society to demonstrate a picture of Chinese social life under the period of reform and opening-up.From the perspective of a cultural other,Hessler points out the problems of Chinese society in the new era.Even though there are several specific prejudices in his statement,this thesis finds out that Chinese people have their principles and standards when tackling social problems,and they can actively find a new way to seek sublimation even they may be trapped into some ethical predicaments.Given the analysis conducted above,it is clear that Hessler,as a cultural other,demonstrates a vivid picture of China at the turn of the century in various aspects.Although his description has some ideological bias,it can enable readers to examine the Chinese life in the period of reform and opening-up from a new perspective.