1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910463552003321

Autore

Wang Mingming

Titolo

The West as the other : a genealogy of Chinese Occidentalism / / Mingming Wang

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Hong Kong [China] : , : The Chinese University Press, , 2014

ISBN

962-996-874-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (400 pages)

Disciplina

302.20951

Soggetti

Intercultural communication - China

East and West - History

Electronic books.

China Relations Western countries

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

List of figures -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Notes on transliteration and bibliography -- Introduction : rethinking "the West" -- King Mu (Mu Tianzi) and the journey to the West -- "illusionary" and "realistic" geographies -- Easternizing the West, Westernizing the East -- Chaos and the West -- "Western Territories" (Xiyu), India, and "South Sea" (Nanhai) -- Beyond the seas : other kingdoms and other materials -- Islands, intermediaries, and "Europeanization" -- Conclusion : towards other perspectives of the other -- Postscript -- Notes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

Long before the Europeans reached the east, the ancient Chinese had advanced their perspectives of the west. In this groundbreaking book, Wang explores a fascinating perspective of the Other. He locates the Other in the alternating directionologies of classical and imperial China, leading the reader into a long history of Chinese geo-cosmologies and world-scapes. In his analysis, Wang also delves into the historical records of Chinese "world activities," or the journeys from being the Central Kingdom to reaching to the "outer regions," separating the construction of illusory from realistic geographies while drawing attention to their interconnected natures. Wang challenges an extensive number of critical studies of Orientalist narratives (chiefly including



Edward Said's Orientalism), and reframes such studies from the directionological perspectives of an "Oriental" civilization. He challenges the assumption that the Other must be understood in the sense that has been explained in general anthropology, crucially underlining the European foundations that have shaped its traditional interpretations.