Traveler and Stranger: The Juxtaposed Identity in Eileen Chang's An Account of an Alien Land
Abstract
Eileen Chang's fictional works are mostly contained within the stable urban interior of Shanghai and Hong Kong, so her unfinished travelogue An Account of an Alien Land (2010) stands out as a rare work structured around spatial movement. Through close reading of selected passages, recurrent imagery, and tonal shifts in the narration, this paper examines the protagonist, Mrs. Shen, who embodies two distinct identities during her journey from Shanghai to rural Wenzhou in search of her lover. She is both a traveler and a stranger, moving with linear purpose toward a destination that promises a hoped-for sense of belonging; unable to be at home culturally or mentally anywhere. It is this strangeness that the paper argues the trip does not dispel but confirms: physical movement itself is evidence of her rootlessness and the two identities remain side by side without cancelling each other out. This unfinished, partial nature of the manuscript also reflects this unsettledness, suggesting that for the modern subject estrangement cannot simply be corrected by embarking on the road.
References
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