Re-Orienting China: Travel Writing and Cross-Cultural Understanding

2016 | Essays

Re-Orienting China challenges the notion of the travel writer as imperialistic, while exploring the binary opposition of self/other. Featuring analyses of rarely studied writers on post-1949 China, including Jan Wong, Jock T. Wilson, Peter Hessler, Leslie T. Chang, Hill Gates, and Yi-Fu Tuan, Re-Orienting China demonstrates the transformative power of travel, as it changes our preconceived notions of home and abroad. Drawing on her own experience as a Chinese expat living in Canada, Leilei Chen embraces the possibility of productive cross-border relationships that are critical in today's globalized world. "An intriguing contribution to research. Postcolonial studies is in the process of exploring ways to get past the binary opposition of self/other, and books like Re-Orienting China are an important part of this project." Pamela McCallum, Cultural Memories and Imagined Futures "Chen brings an intimate awareness of the internal diversity within China which is too often downplayed or ignored by foreign observers." Stephen Clark, Asian Crossings: Travel Writing on China, Japan and Southeast Asia

Leilei Chen (Author)