Kafka is acknowledged by Ishiguro as one of his major literary influences, but their relationship has not been closely verified. The archive of Ishiguro’s manuscripts and papers in the Harry Ransom Center in Austin houses Ishiguro’s extensive notes on Kafka’s works, revealing his fascination with Kafka’s The Trial (1925). This article explores Ishiguro’s unpublished essays and critical notes about Kafka’s narrative techniques, and his millennial novels adapting Kafka’s tactics with the new mode of imagination altered by contemporary visual media, such as photographs and film, to reflect on the dialogues and interactions of writers between cultures based on such media specificity. Referring to the archives of the Ishiguro Papers, I argue that reading and thinking about Kafka helped Ishiguro incorporate surreal aspects of dream and memory into The Unconsoled (1995) and When We Were Orphans (2000). To support this argument, I use the coined dream narrative terms that Ishiguro identified in Kafka’s writing (such as “unwarranted emotion and relationship”, “delayed recognition”, “weird placing and venues”, and “normalization of the oddity”) to cross-examine Ishiguro’s two novels with Kafka’s The Trial to show how Ishiguro experiments and gradually founds his characteristic “appropriation” technique by adding more filmic elements to the Kafkian dream language. The result of such combination is a new world literature that reaches far to readers from all civilizations. Through his profound reading and transmedia adaptation of Kafka, Ishiguro reconstructs world literature. It also bears testimony to Kafka’s great legacy to world literature.

Art history is a form of cultural identity that records philosophical reflections of different cultures, from external appearances to inner worlds. It needs to factually and objectively reflect various artistic genres from different geographical and ethnic origins, as well as their histories of transformation and logics of development. However, from epistemic structures, discursive logics to rhetorical methods, the writing of world art history is subject to the sustained influence of Western-centrism. Although the emergence of a global art historiographical approach in the second half of the 20th century made room for non-Western art in the canonical art history, simply fixing and mending art history will not suffice in transforming the well-established academic paradigm of Western art historiography. To write an art history that accurately reflects the varying artistic profiles, historical genealogies and processes of transformation from different parts of the world, it's necessary to depart from an objectivist art history, to put an emphasis on cultural exchanges, and to construct discursive rules and narrative systems with national artistic characteristics.

Translation serves as a potent remedy for the exchange of heterogeneous civilizations and stands as a crucial bridge connecting indigenous literature with the global literary growth. Contemporary Chinese literature, as an integral component of world literature, continues its connection with world literature through the variation inherent in translation, actively participating in its construction and fostering cultural exchange, complementarity, and literary innovation and integration, during which translators are regarded as as the primary agents and intermediaries. Existing research has overlooked the role of Sinologist translators in the construction of world literature, with Carlos Rojas being a prime example. Rojas is a pivotal translator of contemporary Chinese literature who centers around the English translation of works by authors such as Yan Lianke, Yu Hua, and Jia Pingwa. It can be said that Rojas selects original texts with an eye for the global elements of contemporary Chinese literature, and his translations display a strong consciousness of world literary construction. For one thing, he pursues a translation strategy that balances the effects of defamiliarization and comprehensibility, thereby reflecting a translation philosophy that values both the artistic merit of literary works and reader awareness. For another, he strives for variation in translation strategies that entails neologism, transformation, supplementation, omission cater to the cultural aesthetic preferences of English readers while highlighting the manifestation of heterogeneous cultures, embodying his view of cultural inclusiveness. In this way, Rojas, as the eyes of the foreign, has contributed to bridging Chinese literature with world literature.

Abstract: Since ancient times, the academies in Bashu area are rich in cultural resources. The concept and practice of "making Shu with Confucianism", "taking rites as Confucianism" and "taking wind as teaching" contain rich cultural traditions and regional characteristics of value orientation. Bashu Academy is not only the preservation of traditional culture, but also an important field of academic innovation, cultural reproduction and social change. The academy attaches great importance to the academic debate and academic exchange of "understanding righteousness and principles", and allows different schools of thought to give lectures to reflect the spirit of mutual learning of a hundred schools of thought among civilizations. In particular, the "lecture" system prevalent in the Song and Ming dynasties has become an important way for the academy to give lectures and promote the development of academic culture. From the perspective of field theory, Bashu Academy is not only a place for academic education, but also a key cultural mechanism in the social reform, carrying the transformation and revival of modern and modern Chinese culture. On the basis of deeply grasping the prominent characteristics of mutual learning among civilizations, summarize the experience of producing and cultivating excellent traditional Chinese culture in Bashu Academy culture, keeping pace with The Times, promote the construction of Chinese national community, and give play to the greater role of Bashu culture in forging the consciousness of community of the Chinese nation.

Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper, an English-language travelogue by British author Fuchsia Dunlop, has garnered significant attention overseas for its portrayal of China's food, cities, customs, and culture. The book holds great importance for the international dissemination of Chinese culture, particularly its secular aspects. Current research primarily focuses on translation studies and cross-cultural communication paths, with limited exploration of its Chinese secular culture writing. However, it is this secular culture that prompted Fuchsia, as a cultural "other," to reflect deeply on cross-cultural identity, thereby facilitating a deeper spread of Chinese secular culture. This paper examines the Chinese secular culture writing in Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper, summarizing its contents and characteristics. It further explores the significance of Chinese secular culture for the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture and cross-cultural identity amidst globalization. The paper is structured into three parts: introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction outlines the study's object, background, current research status, methodology, and significance. The main body comprises three chapters. Chapter 1 elucidates the content and value of Chinese secular culture, highlighting its practical potential for international dissemination. Chapter 2 summarizes the Chinese secular culture featured in the book, encompassing dietary culture, urban culture, and rural customs, and analyzes the cross-cultural reflections these cultures elicited in Fuchsia. Chapter 3 delves into the characteristics and cultural significance of Chinese popular culture in cross-cultural communication. At the value identity level, Fuchsia's perspective on Chinese secular culture evolved from "shock" to "recognition." In terms of cross-cultural identity, she pursued and rebuilt her self-worth through learning Chinese culture, completing a cultural root-searching journey from a globalization perspective. This process allowed her to reconfirm her cultural identity in a global context and gain self-rediscovery. The conclusion summarizes the study's findings. The paper argues that the Chinese secular culture writing in Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper underscores the unique value of secular culture in Sino-foreign exchanges, including its popularity, acceptability, broad dissemination, and two-way interaction. It stimulates the transformation of the cultural identity of the "other," deeply engaging Chinese culture in identity thinking amidst globalization. This facilitates deep-level dissemination of Chinese culture, reconfirms cultural identity in a global context, and prompts Chinese readers to reassess their cultural traditions from an external perspective. This has significant academic and practical implications for exploring the content choice and overseas dissemination path of Chinese culture.