The Image Of The United Kingdom In Extraterritorial Travels Of The Qing Dynast

Before the Qing Dynasty, West was a general concept in the eyes of the Chinese people. The early image of West was a product of Chinese center of discourse. The Chinese's collective imagination towards west was established on the basis of the mode of thinking in China - Yidi. To a large extent, the traditional mode of thinking and the collective imagination affected image building of British image in the Qing Dynasty.The United Kingdom plays an important role in the history of the Qing dynasty. To a considerable extent, it can be used as the "West" representatives in the history of the Qing dynasty. British image in the travel notes of the Qing Dynasty is the focus of Western image in the eyes of Chinese in that period; that image can be interpreted as the picture reflected the whole western countries.Travel notes had a strong narrative feature, but from the viewpoint of image, any description of exotica was cultural imagination. Travel notes of the Qing Dynasty were kinds of cultural narrative with profound cultural foundation.Because of the special status of officials in the Qing Dynasty, they played an important role in the process of constructing the new collective imagination, and they are the Construction, advocates who guided Chinese to imagine the collective imagination of modern western society. Complex and changeable image of the United Kingdom was a mirror which reflects the desire and terror of Chinese as watchers.Using the image of comparative literature on the theory and methodology, this paper cards Western image of the ancient Chinese before the Qing Dynasty and analyzes the characteristics of the traditional mode of thinking and collective imagination at the beginning. Then, connecting the above features, it focuses on the image of the United Kingdom in travel notes of the Qing Dynasty and analyzes the role and significance of the travel notes and the officials in the formation of "the image of the United Kingdom" in the Qing Dynasty. That is, travels text is a kind of cultural narrative, Travels with intertexuality completed the social collective imagination. As the Qing Dynasty Construction of the image, officials try to deviate from the traditional Chinese collective imagination. By virtue of British image of self-desire, they state their self-desire and reflect on their own culture.