歐美見聞的敘事策略：臺灣日治時期知識菁英的行旅論述

One of the purposes of travel is to experience different cultures. Thus far, travel writings to America and the Europe during the Japanese Colonial Rule are quite limited in number; nevertheless, these writings are discourses of significance and worthy of academic attention for the fact that they are thoughts recollected from the intellectual elites. I have chosen three prominent figures’ writings as my primary research materials, which include Yan Guo-Nian (1886-1937), Tu Tsung-Ming (1993-1986), Chen Ping-Huang (1903-2000), and their works Recent Travel Notes from Europe and America, Travel Notes Around the World by Dr. Tu Tsung-Ming, and My Experiences Abroad respectively. I intended to discuss the similarities and differences among these writings about their respective experiences of boundary crossing narratives. Travel and narrative are closely related, and their relations can be discerned from perspectives such as these writers’ intellectual and cultural assets, and their motivations to travel before their departures. Also, these writings are useful for the analyses of their travel itineraries, visits to important landscapes, and cultural criticisms after the returns. Their departures and returns, from their hometown to America and the Europe, are accumulated in their words written in reflection after coming back home and reveal their epiphanies and culture shocks in the process. The methodologies employed in the research include textual analysis and interpretation of important books, and together with interviews and some field researches, in order to contextualize the boundary crossing thoughts of the Taiwanese literati. Their primary concerns in the writings usually encompass modernity in the American and European cities, observations of Western education systems, the development of democracy and criticism on the citizenship, and thus reveal strong critical perspectives on cultural differences and observations. Discussions will also include various writing techniques found in these travel writings, such as direct narrations, cross-references, comparisons, and criticisms on foreign cultures, that we can discern its symbolic meanings. By interpreting perspectives and analyzing narrative strategies in travel writings, and exposing the cultural differences observed by intellectual elites, who shared similar social status and education background, this project intend to contextualize the development of travel writings by Taiwanese literati.