The First Modern Chinese Travelogue on Romania- Kang Youwei’s Quest for Motivating Analogies
The First Modern Chinese Travelogue on Romania- Kang Youwei’s Quest for Motivating Analogies

Summary/Abstract: Kang Youwei 康有為 was the most important figure of the reform movement of 1898 in China. The reform attempted to constitutionalise the Chinese monarchy during the reign of the emperor Guangxu 光緒 (b.1871, r.1875-1908), in the late years of a moribund dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911). The unsuccessful attempt forced him into exile to Japan first. From there he started to travel extensively, becoming a seasoned traveller and a keen observer of people and places. This is how the most interesting, challenging, controversial and beautiful pieces of modern Chinese travel literature were born. The present study aims to unveil the reasons why such a Chinese intellectual and reformer took interest in a then rather obscure country like Romania and what was the context and importance of his visit. The research is using different sources, including his travel memoirs to other countries in the region and his philosophical and political writings. His travel notes about the kingdom of Romania, unlike some other sources remained just in a manuscript form, preserved at the the Shanghai Museum, being made available to the wider readership only in the collected form of the author’s works, posthumously published at the beginning of the 21st century.

• Details
• Contents