鸦片战争后美国来华传教士与中国形象之分析

鸦片战争之后,中国形象在美国发生了重大转变.在此期间,美国来华传教士扮演了中国形象塑造者和中美文化交流使者的角色.他们穿梭于两种文化之间,不可避免地产生了不同程度的"身份滑移".他们一方面试图将"先进"的西方文明与宗教推广到他们心目中落后的异教国家;而另一方面又必须不断地向国人介绍和解释他们所处的国度及其人民.他们的中国叙述通过教科书的普及,对于19世纪美国人的中国观的形成与发展产生了关键性影响.

American Missionaries and the Image of China after the Opium Wars

After the Opium Wars,the image of China went through fundamental changes in the United States.American missionaries to China played the role of both the image-maker and cultural go-between.As they shuttled to and fro two cultures,they inevitably experienced certain extents of cultural identity shift.On the one hand,they tried their best to disseminate the "advanced" western civilization and religion to the backward heathen world;and on the other hand,they must constantly explain China and the Chinese to their compatriots.Through the indoctrination of school textbooks,their narratives about China exerted crucial impact on the shaping of the image of China in the United States.