| Abstract |
Notes on a trip to frontier seemed to be “the marginal realm” in Chinese travel literature. The distinct customs and folks, the geographical and cultural characteristics, from a traveler’s point of view, are issues worthy of further exploration. This article focuses on “Kuan Chi Yi – The Geography of Provinces in Southwest” authored by Wang Shi-Hsing, to illustrate the description and imagination of exotic culture from a Chinese perspective. The dialectics between “geographical facts” and “fantastic stories” presented in Kuan Chi Yi provides another way of reading: the travel book serves as a knowledge source as well as a narrative of personal ventures.
|
