Image Of Europe And The United States In Occidental Travel Notes Of Late Qing Dynasty

In1840, the British invaded China by force. The Qing dynasty which immersed in the dream of "middle kingdom" began to undergo the greatest changes that Chinese history has never experienced before. The failure of wars and the signing of unequal treaties made the country’s sovereignty and national dignity unprecedented challenged. In order to save and explore path for the endangered nation, social liberals began to open their eyes to see the world, especially these scholar-officials. They took the responsibility of diplomatic missions of the Qing court which expected these scholar-officials to understand and study the west.The occidental travel notes in late Qing dynasty was produced in such historical backgrounds and they not only recorded the western history and geography, fashion and custom, science and education, politics and economy, but also reflected journey of the heart of these travelers. During the traveling, the west bounds compared all kinds of things they saw with the Chinese local culture constantly. Facing all sorts of phenomenon of western society, they either envied or criticized, and scholar-officials’traditional cognition structure and value system began to collided with the western culture in the process of comparison. The west bounds heart showed the contradiction and anxiety in varying degrees. It was also in the process of this comparison, they began to realize the west.Using the research method of image of comparative literature, this article will discuss the Europe and the United States image in occidental travel notes of late Qing dynasty in four chapters. Chapter one is the outline of occidental travel notes in late Qing dynasty. First of all, the essay will define the scope of research from three aspects:"late Qing dynasty ","occidental","travel notes ". Second, it briefly describes the era background of occidental travel notes in late Qing dynasty and the three stages of development; Chapter two starting from the psychological level of the west bounds which was divided into two sections to illustrate their contradiction and anxiety state of mind. The essay will research the travelers’ choice in the dilemma from their attitude toward travel and analyze travelers’ reaction under strange eyes from the perspective of being onlooking; Chapter three reflects the travelers’ acceptance and rejection of heterogeneous culture from three aspects:geographical knowledge, attitude towards western transformation and ethics; Chapter four reflects the travelers’ deepening cognition of western culture:science and technology implements. Analyzing the different acceptance attitude of Western civilization, the essay makes a conclusion that traditional culture psychology, traditional cognitive way and xenophobic psychology is the main reason for the west bounds alienation of western civilization, what’s more, clear understanding of the current political situation and calm, open, peace of mind are the main factors that they identify with western civilization.