Abstract: Maugham traveled a lot in his life and created many works. He once traveled to China, and created many images of China in his works. On one hand, Maugham tried to treat these images objectively, but on the other hand, he could not get rid of the deep-rooted concept of China in Western society. Both the social and personal reasons lead to the complex contradiction and changes of the images of China in Maugham’s works. This paper aims to clarify the images of China in On a Chinese Screen, from the perspective of Imagology and “Other” theory of Comparative Literature, and analyze the reasons of the changes.

Key words: images of China; Comparative Literature; Imagology; the other

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Theory of Imagology of Comparative Literature and the “Other”-3

3. Images of China from the Perspective of Imagology in On a Chinese Screen-6

  3.1 The Images of Chinese People: Ugliness, Savage and Opium Smokers-7

  3.2 The Images of Chinese Reality: Poor, Large Population and the Cruel Custom of Abandoning Baby-9

4. Reasons for the Formation of the Images of China in On a Chinese Screen-11

  4.1 The Psychology of Cultural Imperialism-12

     4.1.1 The Images of China as the “Other”-13

     4.1.2 The Images of Britain as the “self”-14

  4.2 Maugham’s Personal Factors-15

5. Conclusion-17

References-19