文化符号与城市建构--晚清域外游记中的西方图书馆

Cultural Symbols and Urban Construction:the Western Libraries in the Travel Notes of the Late Qing Dynasty

晚清知识精英在域外寻求国富民强与民族振兴的过程中,不仅关注西方的经济、军事、政治等领域,还对文化领域的图书馆进行了深入考察。西方图书馆不单单是一个文化展示、传播和交流的文化空间,更是一个承载了多重文化意味的文化符号。晚清知识精英通过聚焦西方图书馆,一方面建构了发达的西方城市形象,另一方面也展现了落后封闭的中国文化形象。在某种意义上而言,西方图书馆作为形塑自我的文化空间,在昭示着世界之广阔的同时,也成为一个构建中国他者与西方自我的重要文化场域。

The intellectual elites in the late Qing Dynasty has not only paid attention to the western economic,military,political and other fields,but also has made an in-depth study of the library in the cultural field in the process of seeking for national prosperity and national rejuvenation.The western library is not only a cultural space for cultural display,dissemination and exchange,but also a cultural symbol bearing multiple cultural meanings.By focused on the western library,the intellectual elites of the late Qing Dynasty has constructed the image of developed western cities on the one hand,and has displayed the image of backward and closed Chinese culture on the other hand.In a sense,the western library,as the cultural space of shaping self,not only shows the vast world,but also becomes an important cultural field to construct the Chinese other and the Western self.