Under the perspective of mutual learning of civilizations, the image of the Miao people in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China is a diverse and complex topic. The image of the Miao people in this period was not only influenced by their own cultural traditions, but also deeply imprinted with the collision and integration with foreign cultures, especially the western Christian culture and the mainstream culture of the Central Plains. With The West China Missionary News (1899-1943) as the center and through the image of Miao people in this period, we can have a deeper understanding of the uniqueness and diversity of Miao culture, and a better understanding of the communication and interaction between different cultures.

Firstly, the portrayal of the Miao in the The West China Missionary News is examined, focusing on three aspects: the natural environment, social culture, and psychological essence. This analysis reveals a Western depiction of the Miao as "primitive" "backward" "poor" and "ignorant" reflecting a derogatory and negative perspective. This stereotype stems from Western labeling, portraying the Miao as a group in need of Western "salvation" and "enlightenment". Further, the construction of the Miao image in the publication is scrutinized through historical, textual and authorial contexts, elucidating how the Miao have been represented as "the other". The examination explores the dynamics behind the formation of their image. Lastly, the value of the "foreign gaze" is assessed, revealing the Miao's image and its implications. This reevaluation serves as a mirror to reflect on unnoticed cultural issues and exposes the significance of the representation of Southwest China's ethnic minorities under modern Western discourse.

Through foreign eyes, we can observe that news reports featuring images depicting Miao people not only serve as personal creative records reflecting what Western writers have witnessed, but also offer colorful depictions reflecting cultural histories among southwest Miao people during late Qing Dynasty up until the Republic of China. Unique news styles coupled with narrative elements present throughout The West China Missionary News contain intertextual values bridging textuality with reality when examining literary imagery.

This historical experience offers important insights for mutual learning between Chinese and Western civilizations. Firstly, cultural exchanges must be based on the principles of equality and respect, avoiding cultural hegemony and assimilation. Secondly, cultural transformation should focus on the protection and development of indigenous cultures, rather than simply transplanting foreign cultures. Finally, cross-cultural exchanges require sincere cooperation and mutual understanding from both parties to achieve true mutual learning and win-win outcomes.

The study of Russian Oriental literature and Chinese literature is conducted within the overall framework and academic lineage of Russian Orientalism. The Soviet edition of History of World Literature inherits the tradition of regional holistic comparative research on Central Asia, China, and its border regions within Russian Orientalism. It examines the distinctive development and value contributions of Chinese literature within the developmental process of world literature, thereby presenting the characteristics of "History of Eastern Regional Literature". The work opposes both Western and Eastern centrism but reflects a worldview and cultural stance centered on Russia, which can be described as "Orient-Russia-West." By transcending the scope of national literature (Sinology) research and integrating the holistic literary history and historical typology research methods of Orientalists during the Soviet era, we objectively evaluate the characteristics and literary historical value of the book's research on the history of Chinese literature.

As two ancient civilizations, Latin America and China, bear rich historical and cultural legacies. In the works One Hundred Years of Solitude and Big Breasts and Wide Hips, the authors vividly depict the intricacies of personal, familial, and historical traumas with their unique narrative styles, presenting readers with a profound canvas of compassion for trauma. From the perspective of the trauma theory, this article incorporate narrative perspectives, explores how literature reflects and shapes the interconnections between history and culture by contrasting and analyzing the expressions of trauma across different cultural backgrounds.

The late twentieth and twenty-first century have witnessed a significant explosion of Victorian revivalism. Central to this trend is what I call a proliferation of ‘neo-Victorian’ novels. They highlight key historical moments – the cholera pandemics, the Crimean War, the rapid expansion of cities, and the British migration to the settler colonies, to name just a few – to prompt authors, readers and critics to revisit the Victorian past and rethink the broader context of Victorian imperial history and its ongoing legacies.

As a result, a series of terms such as ‘retro-Victorian’, ‘Victoriana’, ‘neo-Victorian’ or ‘post-Victorian’ have emerged, seeking to emphasise the different impulses resident in this young genre. For example, borrowing from Fredric Jameson, Dianne F. Sadoff and John Kucich use ‘post-Victorianism’ because they consider most neo-Victorian works as popularized cultural products or mediocre Victorian ‘imitations’ (xi) in the marketplace, resulting in ‘a new depthlessness’ and ‘a consequent weakening of historicity’ (Jameson 6). However, I would contend that dismissing the ‘neo-’ prefix fails to acknowledge the critical potential inherent in the genre. Rather than saying that neo-Victorian narrative is marked by ‘a loss of a sense of history’ (Kaplan 3), my paper offers a counter-argument that neo-Victorianism marks the emerging of a new historicity. It is not so much about the loss of history but a revision of “a singular linear, authoritative history’ (Lowenthal 22) in our ‘epoch of simultaneity’ (Foucault 22).

To participate this ongoing discussion, I would like to direct the attention of this field from neo-Victorian canons set in London to an unexpected body of neo-Victorian writings that see London as the point of dispersion to the outside world or set on/by the sea. These depictions of Victorian waterscapes range from the embankments of Matthew Kneale’s Sweet Thames (1992) to the filthy underground sewers of Clare Clark’s The Great Stink (2005); from the coffin ship across the Atlantic during the Irish Famine in Joseph O’Connor’s Star of the Sea (2002) to the maritime trades at the age of British Empire in Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy (2008–15). Inspired by Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic (1993), I propose that the depictions for waterways, ships and maritime journeys are highly useful in ‘produc[ing] an explicitly transnational and intercultural perspective’ (15) in the genre.

The paper puts a special emphasis on the critical potential of watery places that came to be associated with marginality, liminality and national identity. My investigation builds on works of geographers and literary scholars like Rob Shields (1991), Jimmy Packham (2018) and Hannah Freed-Thall (2023) who see coastlines, falls and beach resorts as potent sites to rethink our perceptions of national/cultural borders and identity. What distinguishes liminal spaces, such as watery borders, is their inherent fluidity and lack of clear definition in contrast to other borders which, although equally arbitrary, are often treated as rigid, fixed and unyielding in their social and political significance.

Works Cited

Foucault, Michel. “Of Other Spaces.” Diacritics, vol. 16, no. 1, 1986, pp. 22–27.

Lowenthal, David. “Revisiting Valued Landscapes.” Valued Environments, Edited by John R. Gold and Jacquelin A. Burgess. Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 74–99.

Gilroy, Paul. Postcolonial Melancholia. Columbia University Press, 2005.

Kaplan, Cora. Victoriana: Histories, Fiction, Criticism. Edinburgh University Press, 2007.

Sadoff, Dianne F., and John Kucich. “Introduction: Histories of the Present.” Victorian Afterlife: Postmodern Culture Rewrites the Nineteenth Century, edited by Dianne F. Sadoff and John Kucich, University of Minnesota Press, 2000.