Abstract
This dissertation is a literary study of how and why late Qing Chinese self-image formation involved the “alien eye,” by which I mean the view of the foreigner observing and writing about China. I investigate writings and occasionally images produced within the period from 1874 to 1911, framed by the founding of the first Chinese-owned modern newspaper and the overthrow of the Qing empire. The literary genres I address include essays, short stories, novels, and plays. While effects of foreign views of China on the Chinese varied from positive stimulation to psychological damage, I argue that Chinese’ appropriation of the alien eye in their public writings empowered while at the same time complicated their reexamination of China, shaping modern Chinese self-identity in intricate ways. Instead of being passively configured in the unifying gaze of the other, Chinese self-images acquired varied forms as a result of the diverse interpretations and rewriting of the foreign vision by Chinese writers in the transnational exchanges of views.
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Comparative Literature
Committee Chair
Daniel Hsieh
Committee Co-Chair
Aparajita Sagar
Date of Award
8-2018
Recommended Citation
Huang, Yingying, "The Alien Eye: Chinese Self-Images and the External Observer, 1874–1911" (2018). Open Access Dissertations. 1961.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1961
Committee Member 1
Hongjian Wang
Committee Member 2
Emily Allen