The West As the Other

Download or read book The West As the Other written by Wang Mingming and published by The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long before the Europeans reached the East, the ancient Chinese had elaborate and meaningful perspectives of the West. In this groundbreaking book, Wang explores their view of the West as other by locating it in the classical and imperial China, leading the reader through the history of Chinese geocosmologies and worldscapes. Wang also delves into the historical records of Chinese "world activities", journeys that began from the Central Kingdom and reached towards the "outer regions". Such analysis helps distinguish illusory geographies from realistic ones, while drawing attention to their interconnected natures. Wang challenges an extensive number of critical studies of Orientalist narratives (including Edward Said’s Orientalism), and reframes such studies from the directionological perspectives of an "iental" civilization. Most significantly, the author offers a fundamental reimagining of the standard concept of the other, with critical implications not only for anthropology, but for philosophy, literature, history, and other interrelated disciplines as well.