The Research On "the Traveler’s Tale In Shen Bao"(1911-1915)

In the beginning of20th century, China has seen a sharp and historical social change of the modern times. The cultural communication between eastern and western countries is deepen after the Revolution of1911. The achievements in material and spiritual civilizations of western countries have been introduced to China and have a great impact on Chinese traditional culture. In face of the civilization of foreign origins, whether Chinese people should accept or reject it and what impacts it will have on the attitudes toward the western civilization are should be considered.This paper is focuses on the column which named "The Travel’s Tale" in "Shen Bao Free Talks" to investigate Chinese people’s attitudes toward western civilization at that time.According to the research on the articles published in " The Travel’s Tale", the author finds that many Chinese began to take an active attitude toward western civilizations after Constitutional Reform and Modernization, new policies of latter stage of Qing Dynasty and the Revolution of1911. Many people began to accept and use western products and gained the firsthand experience of the convenience and advantages of advanced western technologies. This made them to have appreciated and positive attitude towards the utensils of western civilizations.However, there are different opinions on how to deal with the western culture. Under the influence of radicalism, a kind of cultural anxiety disorder has appeared in China in the beginning of20th century. Chinese traditional cultural has experienced setbacks in the contact and collision with western civilization. Driven by the hope of "getting rid of the age of barbarism and rousing to catch up", the thought circle in modern China emerged a criticism and doubt trends of though. Although few intellectuals realized that the western civilization is not perfect and pointed its disadvantages, the thought trend of "Total Westernization" still played an important role in domestic.As the newspaper which has the most readers in China at then,"Shen Bao" has a major impact on public opinions. What was the attitude of "Shen Bao" towards the comparison between Chinese and Western cultures is worthy to pay attention to. Through the research on "The Travel’s Tale", it could be found that instead of following blindly about the disadvantages in western societies, it criticized and uncovered them. It showed an objective attitude towards the comparison between Western and Chinese cultures. Under the environment that the "Total Westernization in Culture" has taken the broad influence, its attitude deserved praise. Besides, through this communication medium,"The Travel’s Tale" reported many of Right Movement, Career Choice and Marriage and Family about western women which played a role of enlightenment in the fighting for rights of Chinese women. It also reflected the development trend of times.