儒勒·凡尔纳与中国:历史、新闻(时事)和想象

Jules Verne and China:History,Journalism and Imagination

儒勒·凡尔纳的作品《一个中国人在中国的遭遇》与当时可供阅读的新闻时事、旅行游记材料紧密相连。小说脱胎于19世纪下半叶法国对中国、中国人、中国史所形成的表述,展现了19世纪末法国中国论的强烈张力。素材的有限性和作者的进化论视角将作品置于西方文明观念、野蛮观念和“欧洲化”观念的影响之下,反映了鸦片战争以来全球化和西方化的进程。但与此同时,其作品一定程度触及了中国当时复杂的文明社会特征,为法国社会提供了一个想象和了解中国的途径。

Jules Verne's way of writing was closely linked to daily reading,and thus The Tribulations of a Chinaman in China is closely linked to news and current events,travelogues,and other material available for reading.The work is derived from the representations of China,Chinese people,and Chinese history that could be developed in France in the second half of the 19th century,and shows the strong tension of French portrayal of China at the end of the 19th century.The limited nature of the material and the author's evolutionary perspective place the work under the influence of Western notions of civilization,barbarism,and“Europeanization,”reflecting the process of globalization and Westernization since the Opium Wars.At the same time,however,the work touches to some extent on the complexities of Chinese civilized social features,providing French society with a way to imagine and understand China.