透视《东西洋考每月统记传》之创办：文化与历史的视野

A New Perspective on the Establishment of Eastern Western Monthly Magazine——from Cultural and Historical Visions

《东西洋考每月统记传》作为基督新教传教士在中国境内所创办的最早的中文报刊,是在清王朝陷入衰败、西方国家纷纷崛起之际诞生的。欧洲中心观的泛化使得新教传教士认为自身的文化有被假定的优越性,有资格被普遍化,而中国文化作为"异端"文化,理应被西方文化同化。这与中国文化中根深蒂固的"华夷"观念形成了极大的冲突。而自古以来华洋杂处的广州也成了异质文化最易进入的地区,传教士依据自身的认知图式,结合汉语学习的经验,选择了直接用汉语著书办报的方式在这里传播西方文化。《东西洋考每月统记传》的诞生折射出的是中西文化在跨文化交流过程中的冲突和妥协。

Eastern Western Monthly Magazine, founded by Protestant Missionaries in China＇s continent and widely perceived as the first modem newspaper in Chinese, was born in the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the rise of the western countries. At that time, westem cultures, with the generalization of Eurocentrism, have gradually gone into great conflicts with Chinese ＂Hua Yi＂ concept, since the Protestant missionaries held it that their culture, being superior, was qualified to be universalized while Chinese culture, as heresy, was supposed to be self-evidently assimilated by their cultures. However, Canton area, where aliens were mingled with Chinese since ancient times, had become the most accessible area to the heterogeneous cultures. On the basis of their own cognitive schema, Christian evangelists, holding rich Chinese language leaming experience, chose to publish books and newspapers in Chinese directly to diffuse their cultures. From its very beginning, Eastern Western Monthly Magazine reflects the conflicts and compromises between Chinese and Western cultures in the process of inter-cultural communication.