Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
Home> Volumes> Volume CHR Vol.116> Article
Research Article

Gaze and Dialogue: An Imagological Study of Transcultural Travel Narratives of Xinjiang—From Sven Hedin to Shen Wei's Dual Writings

Yurun TianXinjiang University of the Arts*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

Transcultural travel narrative is an important practice for constructing regional images and promoting dialogue among civilizations. From the perspective of transcultural imagology, this paper compares the narratives of Xinjiang in Swedish explorer Sven Hedin's Travels in the Heart of Asia and Zhejiang poet Shen Wei's Notes on the Western Regions. Hedin gazes at Xinjiang as an explorer and geographer, and solidifies Xinjiang as an object to be observed within the framework of subject-object dualism. Shen Wei, relying on his settlement experience and "deterritorialized regional writing", moves towards dialogic narrative, making Xinjiang a cultural subject that can communicate equally with the outside world. The comparison between the two modes reveals the shift of travel writing from "gaze" to "dialogue", and provides ideological resources for constructing transcultural narratives of Xinjiang and China's image.

Keywords: Transcultural narrative; Xinjiang image; travel writing; gaze; dialogism
Published: July 6, 2026
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2026.35100
Volume: CHR Vol.116
pp. 53-60
Download PDF

References

  1. Zhou Ning. Transcultural Imagology: The Dilemma of Problems and Methods [J]. Journal of Xiamen University (Arts & Social Sciences), 2012, (05): 1-9.
  2. Lin Xi. Between Criticism and Construction: The Two Faces of Transcultural Imagology [J]. Southeast Academic Research, 2014, (01): 91-95+247.
  3. Gérard Genette. Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method / New Narrative Discourse [M]. Trans. Wang Wenrong. China Social Sciences Press, 1990: 129-130.
  4. Michel de Certeau. The Practice of Everyday Life 1: The Art of Practice [M]. Trans. Fang Linlin, Huang Chunliu. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 2009: 200.
  5. Cheng Xiangli. From "Treasure House of Resources" to "Strategic Important Place" ——The Image of Xinjiang in Chinese Travelogues from the Early 20th Century to the Early 1930s [J]. Journal of Shihezi University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 2020, 34(03): 102-109.
  6. Zhou Ning. Another Kind of Orientalism: Transcending Postcolonial Cultural Criticism [J]. Journal of Xiamen University (Arts & Social Sciences), 2004, (06): 5-12+91.
  7. Lin Cuiyun. Olfactory Landscape of the Silk Road ——Centering on Shen Wei's Notes on the Western Regions [J]. Writing, 2024, 44(05): 50-58+120.
  8. Mikhail Bakhtin. Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics [M]. Trans. Liu Hu. Beijing: Central Compilation & Translation Press, 2010.