Research On Timothy Richard's Cultural Identity And Expressions Via Newspapers

As the main figure of Missionaries in China in late Qing Dynasty, Timothy Richard has spent almost forty-five years in China. And with various occupations, his cultural identity was turning enormously diverse as he had performd an active role in politics, livelihood, education, publishing, as well as newspapers.Under the guidence of the theory of "cultural identity" in intercultural communication and cultural studies, starting from illustrating the concept of cultural identity along with its characteristic of construction, the thesis analyses the text with historical documents. And from exposing Timothy Richard's living experience in China, interpersonal networks, reading, as well as academic performance and political participation, the thesis means to present the path of the construction of his cultural identity under the full range in late Qing Dynasty, that is, from single to multiple, gradually returning to the missionary-based multi-cultural identity. On which basis, combined with the text of A Review of The Time, the thesis aims to investigate the association between his cultural identity and discourse practice.What the study highlighted can be summed into two points followed:First, Timothy Richard's cultural identity has shared certain features in common with ones of missionaries in China in late Qing Dynasty, which all consider "missionary" as their fundamental feature in order to achieve the enlightenment of Christ. While at the same time, The secular activities has brought him to gain his own characteristic of "secular" in cultural identity. And when he edited A Review of The Time, the complex cultural identity of "holy along with secular" has tremendously impacted his discourse in newspapers, which can be characterized as the following points:the reform-minded definition of siuation, missionary characteristics attributed to reasoning stategy; and the westernized orientation in problem-solving strategy.