Analysis of China’s Image in Lost Horizon from the Perspective of Orientalism

Abstract

With the development of globalization, all countries throughout the world have increasingly communicated with each other, culturally and politically. Nevertheless, it’s universally acknowledged that cultural barriers have been existing among them all the time. Especially over centuries, the Oriental world has been inferior to the West in the westerners’ eyes. Additionally, China’s image in the Western literature is so vogue. In brief, there are two kinds of China’s image in the existing English literature, including a “heavenly paradise” and an “evil land”, so that it’s difficult to discover an impartial evaluation on China’s image.

Based on Lost Horizon, this paper is to explore an impartial evaluation on China’s image from the perspective of Orientalism, which will analyze a specific China’s image in the existing Western literature. This paper will illustrate China’s image in Lost Horizon from the following aspects. Firstly, this paper is to analyze some theoretical viewpoints of Orientalism and China’s image in the Western literature. Then it will illustrate China’s image in Lost Horizon and “Shangri-La Complex” of the four western guests. Finally, this paper will point out Hilton’s writing motivation on the basis of the previous analysis, further summarizing the significance to study this kind of literature. Although cultural barrier exist in various cultures all the way, cross-culture study is undeniably an essential component of heterogeneous culture communication.

Key words: China’s image; Lost Horizon; Orientalism; cross-culture study