Suzhou and Venice

Textual Constructions and Cross-Cultural Visions
Erscheinungsjahr 2027
ISBN: 978-3-032-15875-8
Verlag: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Buch, Englisch, 338 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm

Reihe: Chinese Literature and Culture in the World

This book traces the key stages in the cultural construction of Suzhou as ‘the Venice of China,’ through textual and visual representations by European missionaries, travellers and intellectuals from the thirteenth through nineteenth centuries. The images and representations of China they produced played a significant role in shaping and disseminating knowledge about the ‘Orient’. In their works, the frequent parallel drawn between Venice and Suzhou served a heuristic function: it aimed to domesticate a distant and foreign reality for a European audience. While initial depictions of China, influenced by late-Renaissance thought, constructed China through inductive and analogical methods, voyagers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries adopted an empirical stance often filtered through a picturesque view that resulted in a similarly fictional portrayal of China. The vision of Suzhou as ‘the Venice of China’ endured over the centuries and was solidified by its consistent reiteration. Following the twinning agreement between Suzhou and Venice in 1980, the discursive association between the two cities intensified. The first part of this book describes the cultural construction of the long palimpsest that shaped the image of Suzhou as the ‘Venice of China’. The second part explores how Venice is portrayed in Chinese sources, which initially reflected various foreign perspectives and ultimately culminated in a reversal of the centuries-old adage, presenting Venice as ‘the Suzhou of Europe’.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Beltrame, Daniele

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Stoffe, Motive und Themen
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction: The Semiosis of a Commonplace: "Suzhou as the Venice of China".- 2. The Perceptions of Reality: On Referentiality.- 3. The City as Text.- 4. On Intertextuality.- 5. History, Shape, and Names of Suzhou.- 6. Urban Shape.- 7. European Toponyms Referring to Suzhou.- 8. Suzhou in the Eyes of Europe: The First Sources.- 9. A New Vision of China.- 10. Picturesque China.- 11. Imperial Visions.- 12. The Semiotics of Orientalism and Its Reproduction.- 13. The Venice-Suzhou Twinning of 1980.- 14. Venice in the Eyes of the Chinese.- 15. Late Qing Diplomacy.- 16. Republican-Era Intellectuals.- 17. The Mao-Era.- 18. The Post-Mao Era.- 19. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Daniele Beltrame is Associate Professor at the University for Foreigners of Perugia, Italy, specialising in modern and contemporary Chinese literature. Previously, with a research grant from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, he investigated Suzhou’s representation in European sources and Venice’s depiction in Chinese texts as part of the project  . His current research focuses on Chinese popular fiction, particularly original and translated short stories by early 20th-century writers.