open access

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/92780

Between “Southwest of China” and “the Far East” : Thinking Modern Yunnan under a “Double Periphery” Perspective

日本語

Media

2024-04-01

日韓次世代学術FORUM

次世代 人文社會硏究

20

85-108

In Chinese, Yunnan means the south side of the clouds. Yet, where exactly is Yunnan? Existing in the Chinese Empire’s imagination, it is located under the clouds drifting in the Empire’s southern sky: a marginal area inhabited by many ethnic groups. However, from the mid-19th century, Yunnan was portrayed in a large number of travelogues written by the French as a land of unexplored beauty, a land which was considered to be very similar to Southern France. There is no doubt that such writing was a reflection of French colonialism, but it was also a departure from the traditional Chinese description of Yunnan as a borderland of barbarians. This study therefore attempts to analyze how Yunnan was constructed as a double periphery (Southwest of China and the Far East of France) at the intersection of imperial gazes. Furthermore, this study analyzes the newspapers published by modern Yunnan intellectuals, and explains how they thought about the characterization of being peripheries and how they created the subjectivity.

学術雑誌論文

Version of Record

1738-6470

AA12023927