Volume 5 | Issue 6 | Article ID 2450 | Jun 04, 2007

The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus

Taiwan in the Chinese Imagination, 17th-19th Centuries

Emma Jinhua Teng

Taiwan in the Chinese Imagination, which had capsized countless junks; Taiwan
17th–19th Centuries itself was a dangerous place, a mountainous
jungle inhabited by “savages” and rife with
deadly tropical diseases. Travelers told stories
By Emma Jinhua Teng of shipwrecked sailors cannibalized by the
islanders and of headhunting raids across the
Taiwan Strait. Taiwan had also gained infamy
Winter 1697: After four days and nights aboard as a “pirates’ lair.” Above all, the island was
a junk crossing the treacherous waters of the known as a stronghold for the Ming loyalist
Taiwan Strait, Chinese traveler Yu Yonghe forces of Koxinga, [3] who had waged a war of
excitedly spotted the peaks of Taiwan’s resistance against the new Manchu Qing
mountains on the horizon. [1] In sight at last dynasty (1644–1911), and whose defeat by Qing
was the frontier island that he had longed to forces in 1683 resulted in Taiwan’s becoming
see since the Chinese conquest of Taiwan an imperial possession for the first time in
fourteen years earlier. As Yu wrote in his travel Chinese history. It was this feat that sparked
diary: Yu Yonghe’s desire to travel to the island.

Despite the risks the journey presented, Yu was

Taiwan lies far beyond the Eastern intrigued by the notion of seeing the empire’s
Ocean and has never, since the newest frontier. Before the Qing conquest, few
dawn of Creation, sent tribute to Chinese literati had traveled to this “savage
China. Now we have made . . . island.” This voyage was Yu’s chance for
Taiwan the ninth prefecture of adventure, his opportunity to go beyond the old
Fujian. By nature I am addicted to boundaries of China and explore uncharted
distant travel and I am fearless of terrain.
obstacles and danger. Ever since
Taiwan was put on the map, I have
said that I would not be satisfied Yu’s enthusiasm for the Taiwan frontier stands
until I could see the place for in sharp contrast to the disdain expressed by
myself. [2] many of his contemporaries, who regarded the
acquisition of this new territory as a waste of
imperial resources. As one critic declared,
“Taiwan is merely a ball of mud beyond the
Yu Yonghe’s wish came true at last in 1697, seas, unworthy of development by China. It is
when he volunteered for an expedition to full of naked and tattooed savages, who are not
Taiwan to obtain sulfur, a vital strategic item worth defending. It is a daily waste of imperial
used to manufacture gunpowder. Friends and money for no benefit.” [4] Such objections
associates warned him against the voyage: the reflected the prevailing Chinese perception of
Taiwan Strait was perilous, filled with obstacles Taiwan as a barren wilderness, an insignificant
such as the notorious “Black Water Ditch,” parcel of land beyond the pale of civilization.

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So deeply ingrained was this notion that the incorporated into the Qing empire. Over two
court had proposed in 1683 to abandon the hundred years later, in 1887, the court would
newly conquered island after repatriating Ming grant the island full status as a province of
loyalist troops to the mainland. Admiral Shi China.
Lang, who had led the capture of Taiwan,
vigorously protested this decision. In a
memorial submitted to the emperor in February In Taiwan’s Imagined Geography: Chinese
1684, Shi argued for the importance of Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures,
annexing Taiwan on both strategic and 1683–1895 (2004), I examine the place of travel
economic grounds. writing, pictures, and maps in Taiwan’s
transformation from a “savage island” located
“beyond the seas” (haiwai) into a “Chinese
province,” an integral part of the Chinese
I have personally traveled through empire. Qing travelers like Shi Lang and Yu
Taiwan and seen firsthand the Yonghe played a crucial role in the production
fertility of its wild lands and the of geographic knowledge about this newest
abundance of its natural resources. addition to the Qing domain. Their writings
Both mulberry and field crops can helped to demonstrate that far from being a
be cultivated; fish and salt spout “ball of mud” inhabited by “naked and tattooed
forth from the sea; the mountains savages,” Taiwan was endowed with land worth
are filled with dense forests of tall cultivating and populated by natives deserving
trees and thick bamboo; there are of inclusion as subjects of the empire.
sulfur, rattan, sugarcane,
deerskins, and all that is needed
for daily living. Nothing is lacking. The Qing incorporation of this island involved
. . . This is truly a bountifully fertile not only a reconsideration of Taiwan’s place in
piece of land and a strategic imperial geography but also a
territory. [5] reconceptualization of the Chinese domain
itself. The Ming conviction that Taiwan was not
part of this domain was rooted in the
traditional conception of China as a territory
Shi Lang could speak with authority because bounded by natural geographic features, such
he, unlike the emperor’s other advisers, had as mountains, rivers, the desert, and the sea.
traveled to Taiwan and observed local [6] Since Taiwan was separated from the
conditions with his own eyes. Opponents of Chinese mainland by the Taiwan Strait, it was,
annexation knew little about Taiwan beyond ergo, outside China. The Qing expansion into
the cliché of the island as a “miasmal territory “beyond the seas” entailed a shift
wilderness,” for there was a dearth of from the established conception of China to a
information about the island in the Chinese new spatial image of an empire that
histories and geographical records. With his transgressed the traditional boundaries.
personal knowledge of the island, Shi was
uniquely empowered to speak as an expert on
this subject. The emperor was sufficiently The annexation of Taiwan was only one
persuaded by Shi’s eyewitness account of the incident in the much larger phenomenon of
island and its riches to convene a meeting to Qing expansionism, a phenomenon that
debate the issue of annexing this territory. scholars have recently begun to treat as an
Shi’s faction eventually carried the day, and in example of imperialism, comparable to
the spring of 1684, Taiwan was officially European imperialisms. [7] Following the

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conquest of China proper, the Manchu rulers of expanded imperial domain. Among them were
the Qing dynasty pursued numerous military the Kangxi-Jesuit atlas (1717), a comprehensive
campaigns on China’s frontiers. These survey of the empire; The Comprehensive
campaigns were driven largely by the Qing Gazetteer of the Great Qing Realm (Da Qing
need to consolidate the empire and eliminate yitong zhi; ca. 1746), a compendium of
potential military rivals, including the Ming geographic information about the empire; The
loyalist regime in Taiwan and the Mongols and Qing Imperial Tribute Illustrations (Huang Qing
Russians on the Central Asian frontiers. [8] A zhigong tu; ca. 1769), an illustrated catalogue
gradual process that spanned approximately a of the peoples of the empire and other
century, Qing expansionism was also motivated “tributaries” (see Figs. 2–4); and the Imperial
in part by economic interests and by population Glossary of the Five Dynastic Scripts (Wuti
pressures in China proper, which generated a Qingwen jian), an encyclopedic, multilingual
demand for new arable lands. Having annexed glossary of the five major languages of the
Taiwan in 1684, the Qing turned its attention to empire. These texts at once served to define
Central Asia, “pacifying” the Mongols and the extent of the empire and to articulate the
bringing eastern Turkestan and Lhasa, the vision of a geographically diverse and
capital of Tibet, under Qing rule. The Qing multiethnic imperial realm.
further expanded its control in south and
southwest China, subjecting various non-
Chinese peoples of this region to Qing
domination. At its height, in the eighteenth
century, Qing influence extended into Korea,
Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Burma, and Nepal, all
of which came under the suzerainty of the
empire.

Figure 1. Expansion of the Qing empire (cartographic

design by Patrick Florance and Martin Gamache/AMG)

By 1760, the Qing had achieved the incredible

feat of doubling the size of the empire’s
territory (see Fig. 1), bringing various non-
Chinese frontier peoples under its rule. The Figure 2. Picture of Raw Savages of Zhanghua County,
Taiwan from
impact of Qing expansionism was thus Qing Imperial Tribute Illustrations (ca. 1751)
tremendous, as the Qing not only redefined the
territorial boundaries of China but also
refashioned China as a multiethnic
realm—shifting the traditional border between
Chinese (Hua) and barbarian (yi). In doing so,
the Qing created an image of “China” that
differed vastly from that of the Ming.

In order to promote this new conception of the

Chinese empire, the court commissioned a
number of major projects to depict the

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produced various kinds of tu (maps, pictures,

illustrations) as visual records of their
observations (see Fig. 5). These tu included
pictorial maps, ethnographic images, drawings
of flora and fauna, architectural renderings,
and pictures commemorating battles and other
events on the frontier. (Henceforth, I will refer
to these various tu as “topographical
pictures.”) As the empire expanded, travelers’
accounts and topographical pictures became an
important source of geographic knowledge
about the newly acquired lands, knowledge
that was crucial for strategic and
administrative purposes. Travel writing and
Figure 3. Picture of Raw Savages of Danshui, Taiwan from pictures also served an important ideological
Qing function. In representing the distant lands and
Imperial Tribute Illustrations (ca. 1751) the ethnically diverse peoples of the frontiers to
audiences in China proper, these works
transformed places once considered non-
Chinese into familiar parts of the imperial
realm and thereby helped to naturalize Qing
expansionism through the production of a re-
imagined imperial geography.

Figure 4. Picture of Cooked Savages of Taiwan County,

Taiwan from
Qing Imperial Tribute Illustrations (ca. 1751)

I argue that travelers’ representations of

frontier regions such as Taiwan played an
important role in the creation of the new
imagined geography of the expanded Qing
empire. Frontier travel writing emerged as a
vital genre during the Qing, as Chinese literati, Figure 5. Chen Lunjiong, “General Map of the Four Seas”
from Record of Things Seen and Heard at Sea (ca.
military men, and merchants traveled to the 1723–30)
frontiers in unprecedented numbers. Not only
did frontier travelers compose written accounts
of their journeys, but a good number of them The legacy of Qing imperialism for modern

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China has been profound: because the People’s emergence since 1987 as a “Chinese
Republic of China (PRC) now claims democracy” has contributed to the growth of
sovereignty over virtually all the territory Taiwan Studies as an important new field in
acquired by the last dynasty, the impact of Qing Asia and the United States.
expansionism continues to be felt by the people
of Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan, and other former
frontier regions. Separatist (“splittist” in PRC In examining the process by which Taiwan was
jargon) movements in all these areas have met incorporated into the imagined geography of
the Qing empire, Taiwan’s Imagined Geography
with staunch opposition from the Chinese state,
helps to explain how an island that was terra
which considers such lands inseparable parts of
incognita for the better part of Chinese history
China’s sacred territory. Hence, the PRC claims
came to be regarded as an integral part of
Taiwan—which was a Japanese colony between
China’s “sovereign territory.” My work views
1895 and 1945 and which has been ruled by a
Taiwan-China relations as a product of a
separate (and recently democratic) government
particular history—that of Qing
as the Republic of China (ROC) since 1949—as
expansionism—rather than as a matter of vague
“sovereign territory” that must be returned to
“ancestral ties.” [12] By elucidating the nature
the Chinese motherland with due speed.
of this historical relationship, I seek to add to
Ironically, the “territorial integrity” that
our understanding of current political events in
Chinese nationalists seek to defend is based on
the region.
a territorial image of “China” created by an
invading Manchu dynasty, and not the older
Ming image. Expanding Colonial Discourse Studies

Of the former Qing frontiers, Taiwan is of Although the primary focus of Taiwan’s
particular interest because the question of the Imagined Geography is the Qing construction
island’s sovereignty in the postwar era remains of Taiwan’s imagined geography, in writing this
unresolved and hotly contested: Is Taiwan de book I also hoped to challenge prevailing
facto a “sovereign state,” or is it, in the words preconceptions of “the colonizer” and “the
of the U.S. media, a “renegade province” of colonized” by examining a non-Western
China? [9] Taiwan’s relationship to the PRC and imperial power. The presumption that
the question whether Taiwan might officially colonizers were European and the colonized
declare independence were leading issues in non-European is deeply entrenched both inside
the 2000 presidential race in Taiwan, and and outside the academy. The very notion of
remain hot-button topics. In an attempt to studying “Chinese colonialism” thus seems
influence the outcome of that election, the PRC alien to many. On more than one occasion, I
issued a thinly veiled threat of force: “To have been asked: “What do you mean by
safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial ‘Chinese colonial travel writing’? Do you mean
integrity and realize the reunification of the European colonial travel writing about China?”
two sides of the straits, the Chinese The idea that “imperialism” is essentially a
government has the right to resort to any Western phenomenon has also been reinforced
necessary means.” [10] The “Taiwan issue” by scholars of modern China’s
(involving arms sales to Taiwan) is the “postcoloniality,” who have tended to focus on
prickliest thorn in U.S.-China relations and has China’s historical experiences with Western
the potential to bring the two powers into imperialism while ignoring China’s own history
armed conflict. [11] The geopolitical as an imperialist power. [13] This is due in no
importance of Taiwan combined with Taiwan’s small part to the PRC’s ardent denials that the

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Chinese were ever anything but victims of distinguishing “colonialism” from

imperialism; hence official PRC discourse “imperialism,” although the two terms are often
refers to Qing expansionism as “national used interchangeably. Again, there is no
unification,” and talk of “Chinese imperialism” consensus on this score, with some theorists
is heresy. [14] I seek to remedy this situation taking “colonialism” as a subset of
by asserting that China’s postcoloniality must “imperialism” (e.g., Benita Parry) and others
also be understood in terms of the legacy of taking “colonialism” as the more general term
Qing expansionism. and “imperialism” as the particular, late
nineteenth-century European phenomenon
(Nicholas Thomas). [16] Because of this
Expanding colonial discourse studies to include
ambiguity, there will necessarily be some
imperial China is no easy task, for one
slippage in discussing theoretical approaches
immediately runs into terminological
to “imperialism” and “colonialism” here. Like
difficulties. Scholars (both Western and
“imperialism,” “colonialism” is a complex and
Chinese) frequently argue that terms such as
multivalent term that refers to a variety of
“imperialism” or “colonialism” cannot be
historical and regional experiences, ranging
applied to China on the grounds that Qing
from the “settler colonialism” of Australia to
expansionism does not fit the model of
the “internal colonialism” of the American
European imperialism. Of course, the Chinese
ghetto. [17] Since “colonialism” derives from
had an empire, just as Rome had an empire, it
the Latin colere (to cultivate), the distinction
is often argued, but an empire is not the same
as “imperialism.” Yet the notion of “European
that I find most useful is Edward Said’s:
imperialism” is itself problematic. The “‘Colonialism,’ which is almost always a
scholarship of the past several decades has consequence of imperialism, is the implanting
shown that there is no single model of of settlements on distant territory.” [18] This
European imperialism: British imperialism distinction notwithstanding, following
differed from French and German imperialisms; convention I employ the term “colonial
nineteenth-century imperialism differed from discourse,” rather than “imperial discourse,” to
the earlier conquests of the New World and the describe the complex of signs and practices
mercantile colonialism of the seventeenth and within which the Qing empire was known. As
eighteenth centuries. And then there is the David Spurr writes: “In speaking of the
matter of American “neo-imperialism” or “neo- discourse of colonialism, the distinction
colonialism.” Theorists have debated whether [between colonialism and imperialism] tends to
imperialism is best understood primarily as a collapse, since the basic principles of this
political system (as in late nineteenth-century discourse . . . also constitute the discourse of
England) or as an economic system (as by early imperialism.” [19]
twentieth-century critics). Definitions of
“imperialism” range from Lenin’s (1916)
My use of the term “Qing imperialism”
restrictive “monopoly stage of capitalism” to
therefore rests on the premise that, to quote
Michael Doyle’s broadly inclusive “imperialism
Raymond Williams, “imperialism, like any word
is simply the process or policy of establishing
which refers to fundamental social and political
or maintaining an empire.” [15] Thus, there is
conflicts, cannot be reduced, semantically, to a
no universal agreement, even among
Europeanists, on the precise definition of single proper meaning. Its important historical
“imperialism.” and contemporary variations of meaning point
to real processes which have to be studied in
their own terms” (italics added). [20] To this
Theorists have also been concerned with end, I use the word “imperialism” to refer to

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the Qing conquest of vast tracts of non-Chinese imperialism/colonialism as a cultural process

lands through military force, their rule of these that we can begin to find the common ground
distant lands from an imperial center, and their on which “European imperialism(s)” and “Qing
incorporation of significant numbers of imperialism” can be discussed. This is not to
ethnically distinct, non-Chinese peoples as deny the historical specificity of late
subjects of the empire. Since an important nineteenth-century European imperialism or of
aspect of Qing imperialism was the implanting Qing imperialism. Nor is it a plea for a return
of Han Chinese settlements on distant frontier to general, universal theories of imperialism.
territories, I consider Qing expansionism at Rather, it is an attempt to extend the ground on
once an imperial and colonial phenomenon. which particular, historical, and localized
accounts of imperialisms and colonialisms can
be delineated. It is an attempt to initiate a
More fundamentally, I use the term dialogue where there has been none.
“imperialism” to denote the set of practices,
policies, and ideologies through which the Qing
empire was fashioned and maintained. In this I My intent in reclaiming the use of the word
follow Edward Said’s definition: “‘Imperialism’ “imperialism” for China studies is not to
means the practice, the theory, and the suggest the equivalence of Qing and European
attitudes of a dominating metropolitan center imperialisms; although recent scholarship in
ruling a distant territory.” [21] I find Said’s the China field has shown that, despite the
definition useful, since it is neither so manifest differences, Qing and early modern
restrictive that it inhibits cross-cultural European imperialisms bear enough similarities
comparison nor so general that it loses in terms of institutions and processes to merit
theoretical rigor. Moreover, it speaks directly comparison. [23] What I want to do instead is
to my concerns, for my work does not deal to suggest a problematic: Why is it that Qing
primarily with imperialism as an economic or expansionism, which involved territorial
political system, but rather with imperialism as conquest, political control, economic
a set of attitudes and power relations: precisely exploitation, and cultural hegemony, cannot be
those aspects of imperialism that seem to be considered “imperialism”? What does it mean
the most intransigent and that some argue to call the Qing an empire without
have outlasted formal colonial rule. In shifting “imperialism”? What difference would it make
the focus to the cultural and ideological if we were to see Qing expansionism as
dimensions of imperialism/colonialism, I draw imperialism and not simply as an imperium? I
on Nicholas Thomas’s argument: Colonialism is address this problematic further in the
not best understood primarily as a political or Epilogue to Taiwan’s Imagined Geography and
economic relationship that is legitimized or suggest that it informs our understanding of
justified through ideologies of racism or China-Taiwan relations today.
progress. Rather, colonialism has always,
equally importantly and deeply, been a cultural
process; its discoveries and trespasses are Setting Qing expansionism within the broader
imagined and energized through signs, framework of colonial studies rather than
metaphors and narratives; even what would confining it within the perimeter of “area
seem its purest moments of profit and violence studies” allows us to see China in the context of
have been mediated and enframed by global historical processes, rather than as a
structures of meaning. [22] unique and timeless civilization unto itself. [24]
An intriguing statement made by a nineteenth-
century travel writer demonstrates that there
I would argue that it is in were Chinese literati who perceived the Qing

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imperial project in global terms. This traveler, proper was subjugated to the Manchu ruling
Ding Shaoyi, compared his own observations of class. Yet the Qing adopted many of the
Qing Taiwan to Guileo Aleni’s description of the fundamental political, economic, and cultural
European colonization of North America: institutions of the Chinese imperial system,
becoming somewhat “sinicized” in the process.
At the same time, ethnic Han Chinese
participated actively in the military and
The savagery of the native political life of the Qing, becoming part of the
barbarians of the newly opened ruling class and perhaps somewhat
frontiers of North America is no “Manchuized” in the process. [27] This ethnic
different from that of the savages complexity only intensified with Qing
of Taiwan. In the past, they were expansionism. Whereas the Qing army, with its
extremely ferocious, yet Europeans multiethnic troops, conquered the frontier
have managed to guide them with territories, the colonists who settled these
their senseless, confused religion frontiers were nearly exclusively Han Chinese.
and have finally changed the native [28]
customs. So it is a real injustice to
say that the raw savages of Taiwan
have absolutely no human morals What we find in frontier regions such as
despite their human appearance Taiwan, then, is no simple dichotomy of
and that they cannot be civilized colonizer/colonized, but a multilevel hierarchy
with our Kingly Governance of colonial officials (both Manchu and Han),
(wangzheng)! [25] Han Chinese settlers, and indigenous peoples.
Each group had its own interests—sometimes
these interests competed with those of other
groups; sometimes they intersected. Qing
Ding addressed his comments to administrators did not necessarily view Han
contemporaries skeptical about the possibility Chinese settlers as natural allies on the
of civilizing the “savages” of Taiwan. Since the frontiers. Indeed, given the island’s history as a
Europeans had succeeded in North America, he base for Ming loyalists, Qing officials regarded
concluded, surely the Chinese, with their the settlers in Taiwan with suspicion. During
superior civilization, would prevail in Taiwan. the initial years of Qing expansionism, in
Although recognizing differences in specific particular, the court often adopted policies that
beliefs and institutions, Ding perceived favored indigenous peoples over Han Chinese
fundamental parallels between European and colonists, in large measure to prevent costly
Chinese expansionism and their civilizing ethnic unrest. [29] The study of Qing
enterprises. Historian Laura Hostetler has also imperialism therefore seems particularly apt at
demonstrated that the Qing emperors were a time when scholars of colonial studies are
keenly aware of imperialism as a global arguing for the need to rethink older models of
phenomenon and perceived themselves as a strict colonizer/colonized dichotomy and to
players in an international game of territorial consider the complexity of ethnic interactions
expansionism. [26] in colonial contexts. [30]

The notion of “Chinese imperialism” is The analysis of frontier travel writing and
rendered particularly complex by the fact that topographical pictures promises to enhance our
the Qing was itself a conquest dynasty. The understanding of the Qing frontier experience
majority, Han Chinese population of China greatly. Historians have produced excellent

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studies of the political, economic, and military own societies. Painted in the broadest strokes,
administration of the Qing frontiers, but European Orientalism and Chinese discourse
relatively little has been written on cultural on barbarians can be regarded as comparable.
representations of the frontiers. [31] Like Indeed, the similarities are striking and point to
European imperialisms, Qing imperialism was a the existence of shared, cross-cultural modes of
complex and dynamic convergence of strategic, constructing foreign “others.”
economic, political, cultural, and ideological
interests. Studies of Western imperialism have
In my work on Qing travel literature and
emphasized the vital role of colonial discourse
topographical pictures, I consider Chinese
in sustaining empires and producing colonial
representations of the frontiers as a form of
subjects. [32] I would argue that if we wish to
discourse roughly equivalent to Orientalism yet
understand the Qing formation of a
shaped by the particular conditions of the Qing
geographically and ethnically diverse empire,
imperial enterprise. [33] Much as European
scholars of China must similarly attend to the
Orientalism has outlasted European
role of colonial discourse in this process and
colonialism, its Chinese counterpart has
the cultural dimensions of the frontier
outlasted the particular institutions and
experience. Travel literature and topographical
circumstances of Qing imperialism and lives on
pictures, both of which constitute forms of
in contemporary representations of ethnic
colonial discourse, are valuable resources for
“minorities” in the modern Chinese nation-
such a project: these texts express and
state. This phenomenon has been described by
articulate ideologies of imperialism even as anthropologist Dru Gladney as “oriental
they engender ideas about the frontiers. orientalism” and by anthropologist Louisa
Schein as “internal orientalism.” [34]
The study of colonial discourse has largely been Expanding the scope of colonial studies allows
inspired by Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978). us to view China not simply as the object of
Orientalist discourse or as a mimic of Western
Although widely critiqued as reductionist or
Orientalism but also as the producer of its own
one-sided in the decades since its publication,
brand of exoticist discourse.
this provocative work nonetheless remains a
foundational text in the field. Said described
“Orientalism” as a complex set of ideas and One aspect of my research has been to ask
images through which European culture what the concepts of “race” and “ethnicity”
defined the East as “other” to Western meant in the Qing context. [35] Were Qing
civilization. Chinese representations of the representations of frontier peoples culturalist
frontiers as exotic, uncivilized, and barbarous or racialist? Or a combination thereof? Like
bear fundamental similarities to European “imperialism” and “colonialism,” “race” and
Orientalism. If European culture, as Said “ethnicity” are two terms that bear
argued, derived its sense of identity and comparative treatment across cultural
strength by setting itself off against the Orient, contexts. These two terms are perhaps the
Chinese civilization gained its sense of identity more difficult pair, for they are inadequately
as “the Middle Kingdom” (Zhongguo) in defined (even in contemporary American
opposition to the “barbarians of the four usage) and, moreover, have long and
directions” (siyi). Both traditions attempted to complicated histories tied to the histories of
establish their own civilization as the normative imperialism and conquest. Anyone trying to
ideal and to project “over there” qualities and define these terms quickly enters a swamp in
traits (lasciviousness and indolence, for which concepts of race, ethnicity, culture,
example) that they sought to repress in their nation, and tribe are inextricably tangled.

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“Race” and “ethnicity” are, furthermore, loaded Western discourses that place “race” on the
terms in English; “race,” in particular, side of nature and “ethnicity” on the side of
immediately brings to mind racism and nurture, in the “nature” versus “nurture”
eugenics. Using the word “race,” even in debate on human difference. However, in
reference to a historical idea or construct, is drawing these parallels, I by no means suggest
often mistaken as a signal that one believes in that Qing concepts of race and ethnicity are
race as an objective fact—which I certainly do precisely equivalent to their Western
not. [36] counterparts (of any place or period). [39] Why,
then, use a loaded word like “race” at all? Why
not stay with a seemingly more neutral term
Without entering too deeply into this like “ethnicity”? Like Pamela Kyle Crossley, I
terminological morass, it is safe to assert that argue that “unless one has resort to the term
both race and ethnicity essentially refer to the ‘race,’ ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ would remain
categorization of peoples based on some notion mingled with each other, the process of
of difference; how this difference has been differentiation forever muddled by the notion
defined has varied historically and culturally that ‘ethnic group’ is just a better word for
(witness the latest U.S. Census Bureau what was once called ‘race.’” [40] I therefore
attempts to redefine its categories of race and use the word “race” primarily to distinguish
ethnicity). [37] As such, my analysis focuses on what I call “racialist discourse” from “ethnical
the ways in which Qing writers conceptualized discourse,” rather than to highlight the
human difference and categorized groups of similarities between Western and Chinese
people within the empire. [38] thinking on race, as does Frank Dikötter in his
Discourse of Race in Modern China.
In frontier travel writing, Chinese literati were
concerned with a range of human As a form of colonial discourse, travel texts
differences—physical, cultural, linguistic, provide crucial data for the analysis of Qing
intellectual, and moral, as well as in human constructions of race and ethnicity, for they
nature (xing). For Qing authors, the relative allow us to see in greater detail Qing views on
significance of these types of differences was a frontier peoples beyond official
matter of debate. In my analysis of Chinese pronouncements on ethnic policy. In my
sources on Taiwan, I identify two discourses analysis of Qing accounts of Taiwan, I
concerning human difference: what I call a demonstrate how the Qing ideology of empire,
“racialist discourse” and an “ethnical which sought to accommodate different ethnic
discourse.” I roughly define the first as a groups and to suppress the distinction between
discourse that focuses on physical differences Chinese (Hua) and barbarian (yi), came into
and innate differences in human nature. The conflict with older attitudes of Han Chinese
racialist discourse further constructs difference chauvinism, often expressed in racialist terms.
as categorical and absolute, along the lines of
the distinction between humans and animals. In
contrast, ethnical discourse focuses on cultural Imagined Geography
differences and constructs difference as a
matter of degree within certain human
universals. The “imagined geography” of my book title is
intended to distinguish between the geography
that exists on the ground and geography as a
In labeling these discourses “racialist” and cultural construct. Thus, although Taiwan
“ethnical,” I imply certain parallels with never moved from its position at 23.5 degrees

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north/120 degrees east, 96 miles from the pictorial, photographic, and so forth—working
Chinese coast, in terms of the Chinese in concert. [44]
geographic imagination, between the
seventeenth and nineteenth centuries the
island shifted from “far, far beyond the seas” to The concept of “imagined communities” derives
a location firmly situated within the Chinese from Anderson’s pioneering work on
empire. Then, between 1895 and 1945, the nationalism, in which he described the nation
island that had only recently “become Chinese” as an imagined political
“became Japanese,” as Leo Ching community—”imagined” because “the members
demonstrates. [41] In focusing on the role of of even the smallest nation will never know
discourse in these processes, I concur with most of their fellow-members, meet them, or
Edward Said that the “struggle over geography even hear of them, yet in the minds of each
. . . is complex and interesting because it is not lives the image of their communion.” [45]
only about soldiers and cannons but also about Borrowing from Anderson, I suggest the Qing
ideas, about forms, about images and empire not as a community but as an “imagined
imaginings.” [42] My use of the term “imagined geography,” a defined and limited spatial image
geography” draws on Said’s notion of that existed in the minds of Qing elites despite
“imaginative geography,” as well as the
the fact that most would never travel to the
concept of “imagined communities” introduced
distant reaches of the empire. This imagined
by Benedict Anderson.
geography delineated the territory that
belonged to the “our land” of the Qing empire,
In Orientalism, Said proposed the notion of in distinction to the “barbarian lands” that lay
“imaginative geography” to denote the complex beyond its boundaries. As such, imagined
set of ideas and images by which geographic geography describes the process by which the
entities such as the “Orient” and the “geo-body” of an empire is produced.
“Occident” were historically produced. Said
argued that it is through “imaginative
geography” that meaning is assigned to the The term “geo-body” was first used by
space “out there,” beyond one’s own territory. Thongchai Winichakul in 1994 to describe the
As Said wrote: “All kinds of suppositions, territoriality of the Thai nation:
associations, and fictions appear to crowd the
unfamiliar space outside one’s own.” [43] Said
thus highlighted what he saw as the arbitrary
Geographically speaking, the geo-
and imaginative dimensions of geographic
body of the nation occupies a
knowledge. Following Said, the term
certain portion of the earth’s
“imaginative geography” has been used to refer
to the culturally constructed nature of surface which is objectively
geography and to the role of discourse in identifiable. It appears to be
producing geographic knowledge. Whereas concrete to the eyes as if its
Said’s work in Orientalism primarily focused on existence does not depend on any
European texts about the Orient, recent act of imagining. That, of course, is
scholars such as Joan M. Schwartz, Anne not the case. The geo-body of the
Godlewska, and Derek Gregory have nation is merely an effect of
considered imaginative geography as the modern geographical discourse
product of a variety of whose prime technology is a map.
representations—literary, cartographic, [46]

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Although there are essential differences Frontier Travel Writing and Pictures
between empires and nation-states, since
Thongchai concedes that the definition of the
Frontier travel writing and pictures had an
term is neither strict nor conclusive, I will also
intimate connection with the Qing imperialist
use the term “geo-body” in reference to the
project. These works served as vital sources of
Qing empire, which I regard as an effect of
information about the new regions of the
multiple geographic discourses—textual,
empire, especially during the early years of
pictorial, and cartographic. [47]
expansionism, when other sources of empirical
geographic information were not readily
My use of the term “imagined geography” thus available. Frontier officials relied on travel
accounts, maps, and other topographical
distinguishes this particular form from other
pictures to familiarize themselves with local
forms of imaginative geography more
conditions—the terrain, natural resources, local
generally. “Imaginative geography,” as Said
customs, relations between various local tribes,
described it, tends to dramatize the distance
and so forth. Compilers of local gazetteers
and difference of what is “out there.” Following
likewise employed such texts as sources for the
Orientalism, studies of imaginative geography
production of these compendia of geographic
have generally focused on the “barbarian land”
and historical information and crucial
side of the “our land–barbarian land” administrative aids. Travel accounts also
distinction that Said posited as fundamental to served as important source materials for
imaginative geography. [48] In my formulation, general geographic and historical works,
“imagined geography” is concerned primarily encyclopedias, guidebooks, and even the
with defining “our land” and thus focuses on zhiguai (records of anomalies) collections that
the other side of the equation. More Chinese literati read for entertainment.
specifically, the imagined geography of empire
describes the process by which “their land” is
converted into “our land.” Rather than simply Frontier officials themselves seriously engaged
dramatizing distance and difference, imagined in the collection of geographic information
geography at once exoticizes the other and about the frontiers. An excerpt from an
attempts to convert otherness into familiarity eighteenth-century travel account gives us a
and we-ness. I use the variant form “imagined picture of how officials went about this activity:
geography” to connote this slight shift of focus.

In the course of my duties, I toured

Yet because attempts to construct identity out around and inquired after customs
of difference can never be wholly successful, and strange products. I saw all
Qing imagined geography was characterized by kinds of unusual and weird things
an inner dissonance. The tension between that have never been seen in China
dramatizing difference and domesticating it proper. . . . In my spare time from
marked Qing representations of Taiwan and official duty, I ordered a painter to
other frontier regions of the empire. It is this make illustrations of those
tension between difference and sameness, concrete things that I had seen and
distance and union, the exotic and the familiar, heard. . . . I will keep [this pictorial
that I explore in tracing Taiwan’s album] in my travel trunk, so that
transformation from “savage island” into when I return I may present it to
“Chinese province.” the learned and accomplished

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gentlemen at the capital and outside these categories. There are

thereby expand their knowledge. architectural drawings of civil, military, and
[49] religious structures, pictures of local
industries, and illustrations commemorating
events such as the annual review of troops or
an official’s tour of inspection. As with travel
Officials produced such textual and pictorial
writing, a variety of generic conventions
accounts both as personal mementos and as
shaped these pictorial representations. [53]
aids for colonial administration. In addition,
they sometimes submitted travel accounts,
maps, or illustrations to the emperor as records
of conditions on the frontiers or of their own
achievements in frontier service. The court
itself occasionally ordered frontier officials to
submit geographic information and illustrations
for use in the compilation of grand, empirewide
projects such as the Comprehensive Gazetteer
of the Great Qing Realm or The Qing Imperial
Tribute Illustrations. [50]

The subjects taken up by travel writers were

shaped to a large degree by the conventional
categories of geographical
recording—topography, climate, buildings and
institutions, transportation routes, local ethnic
groups and their customs and languages, flora
and fauna, local products, geographic marvels,
and so forth. Although the subjects of travel
writing were fairly uniform, travelers chose to
compose their accounts in a variety of
formats—the travel diary, the essay, the
notation book, or the geographical record (a
genre consisting of short entries under various
categorical headings) [51]—each with its own
generic conventions. [52]

Topographical illustrations, which were Figure 6. “Drinking Party,” from the Zhuluo County
produced either by the travel writers Gazetteer (1717)
themselves or by professional painters in their
employ, generally focused on similar subjects
(see Figs. 6–11). For the most part, frontier
pictures can be divided into three main
categories—maps or landscape pictures (ditu or
shanchuantu), ethnographic illustrations
(fengsutu), and illustrations of flora and fauna
(fengwutu)—but a wide range of tu exist

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Figure 7. “Pounding Rice,” from the Zhuluo County Figure 8. “Hunting Deer,” from the Zhuluo County
Gazetteer (1717) Gazetteer (1717)

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Figure 9. “Fishing,” from the Zhuluo County Gazetteer Figure 10. “Picking Betel Nuts,” from the Zhuluo County
(1717) Gazetteer (1717)

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imperatives coincided with the scholarly

interests of Qing literati, and these interests
reinforced one another.

Other cultural trends of the late imperial era

also stimulated interest in the frontiers. This
era has been described by many literary
scholars as an age of surfeit, an age when
everything seems to have been done,
everything seems to have been said. [55] This
was particularly true in the case of travel
literature, for all the famous mountains, all the
scenic spots in China, had been overinscribed
with the writings of earlier travelers. [56] In
conventional travel writing, the traveler was
expected not so much to describe the scene
before him but to meditate on his relationship
to those who had come before him. Paintings of
the famous scenic spots similarly were bound
by convention and the precedents of famous
masterworks. Frontier travel gave the literatus
the opportunity to do something new and fresh,
to cover new ground, as it were. Liberated from
Figure 11. Figure from the “Country of Wild People” from
Wang Qi’s Pictorial Compendium of the Three Powers
the need to dwell on historical models, the
(1609) traveler as explorer and eyewitness observer
took center stage. Travelers to Taiwan had
perhaps the greatest leeway for originality, for
The development of frontier travel literature in
unlike travelers to the Central Asian frontiers,
the Qing was encouraged not only by the
for example, there were virtually no literary
demands of expansionism but also by the new
precedents for their journeys.
status accorded geography as a discipline.
According to Benjamin Elman, the kaozheng
(evidential scholarship) movement—one of the
Qing travel literature evinced a new attitude
major intellectual trends of the late imperial
toward the frontiers. Canonical Tang dynasty
era—elevated geography to a key discipline
(618–907) literary treatments of the frontiers
through important methodological innovations
were filled with images of hardship and
in the seventeenth century. [54] The new
geography emphasized empirical observation,
suffering—whether the bitter winds of the
the systematic gathering of data, and Central Asian frontier or the miasmas of
philological research. It often focused on topics southern border lands. The theme of exile
related to issues of frontier or maritime permeates this literature, with unfamiliar
defense. Evidential scholarship also generated terrain causing tears of homesickness and
interest in historical geography, including the alienation to well up in the eyes of the poet. As
historical geography of China’s frontiers and Han Yu wrote from exile in Chaozhou in the
borders. Thus, in frontier geography colonial south:

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Typhoons for winds, crocodiles for and its indigenous people frequently expressed,
fish— and were colored by, their author’s political,
Afflictions and misfortunes not to social, or philosophical concerns.
be plumbed!
South of the county, as you
approach its boundary. Encounters with difference on the frontiers also
There are swollen seas linked to prompted travelers to engage in cultural
the sky; reflection, leading them to new understandings
Poison fogs and malarial miasmas of Chinese culture and often to cultural
Day and evening flare and form! relativism. Questioning the universality of
[57] Chinese culture, travel writers suggested that
it was fitting for each place to have its own
customs and tastes: as many a writer proposed,
“Perhaps our customs seem just as strange to
In contrast, we find Qing travelers, like Yu them.” Traditional Western historiography has
Yonghe, proclaiming a passion for “distant presented China as culturally static and self-
travels” (yuanyou) and even relishing the satisfied until the encounter with the West in
danger and strangeness of the frontiers. As Yu the nineteenth century. However, an
Yonghe declared: “In searching for the exotic examination of frontier travel writing
and visiting scenic spots, one must not fear demonstrates that long before the “response to
terrible inclinations: if the voyage is not the West,” Chinese intellectuals were
dangerous, it will not be exotic; if the interested in exploring the ways in which other
inclination is not terrible, it will not be cultures challenged their own societal norms.
exhilarating.” [58] In similar terms, another
traveler vowed: “If the journey is not distant,
then it will not be lusty; if the journey is not Qing literati expressed a penchant for reading
dangerous, it will not be exotic.” [59] These about exotic geographies and for collecting
sentiments were echoed by numerous other ethnographic illustrations of exotic peoples
frontier travelers who insisted on the such as the Miao of southwestern China or the
unconventional and adventurous journey as the “savages” of Taiwan. Their enthusiasm for the
only authentic form of travel. subject is reflected in the number of
anthologies devoted to travel writing produced
during the Qing. Travel accounts and pictures
In the classic Chinese World Order (1968), John originally circulated in manuscript form among
King Fairbank argued that traditional Chinese the author’s friends and colleagues, as well as
relations with non-Chinese peoples were among frontier officials. Many such
colored by the concept of sinocentrism and the manuscripts were subsequently published,
assumption of Chinese superiority. One would either as part of an author’s collected works or
expect Chinese accounts of frontier peoples to in collectanea. Wang Xiqi’s mammoth
be marked by this attitude of Han Chinese Geographic Collectanea of the Little Fanghu
superiority. As I shall demonstrate, in frontier Studio (Xiaofanghuzhai yudi congchao,
travel literature this was not, however, published 1877), for example, reproduced over
uniformly the case. Rather, Chinese views of a thousand travel accounts representing exotic
the other were complex and often locales from Taiwan to Turfan. [60] Travel
contradictory. As in Western travel literature, literature and topographical pictures thus
encounters with the other provided Chinese appealed to a dual audience: frontier officials
travelers with an opportunity to look back at and others who needed practical geographic
the self, and literati representations of Taiwan information and armchair travelers who sought

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to experience the thrills of the frontier out some silk and used it to depict what I had
vicariously. seen, because relying on your ears is not as
good as relying on your eyes.” [65] The
privileging of the eye as the most reliable sense
Unfortunately, although a significant corpus of is related to the privileging of experiential
late imperial travel writing was preserved knowledge in travel writing. [66] The ears, in
through reprinting in collecteana, due to the contrast, are associated with hearsay, a type of
difficulties of reproduction, pictures were knowledge regarded as particularly suspect in
generally not included in such reprintings. [61] travel literature. [67] It is the traveler’s claim
Subsequently, many pictures have been lost or
to have been an eyewitness to all he records
exist only in rare manuscript editions in
that confers authority on the travel account.
museums or private collections. Sometimes our
[68]
only clue that pictures once accompanied a
particular travel account is a colophon writer’s
lament that “it is a pity that the pictures have The role of the eyewitness acquired a special
long been lost.” [62] Thus, although travel importance in Chinese accounts of the
literature and topographical pictures originally frontiers, as it did in European accounts of the
circulated within the same milieu, the modern New World. In the absence of a canon of texts
reader of Qing travel anthologies generally concerning these “uncharted terrains,” only
reads as though texts existed in isolation from firsthand experience could lend credibility to
pictures—a practice reinforced by the academic the explorer’s report. [69] As one Qing literatus
distinction between literary studies and art asserted:
history. I argue, however, that travel writing is
best understood within a system of geographic
representation that includes visual materials.
Of all the books written about
Taiwan, works such as Ji Qiguang’s
Travel and Visuality Brief Account of Taiwan [sic] and
Xu Huaizu’s Random Jottings on
Taiwan are based on
Indeed, visuality plays a central role in the unsubstantiated rumor. . . . Only
practices of travel and travel writing. As Mary Lan Dingyuan’s Record of the
Louise Pratt has shown in Imperial Eyes: Travel Pacification of Taiwan and Huang
Writing and Transculturation, it is primarily Shujing’s Record of a Tour of Duty
through the sense of sight that the traveler
in the Taiwan Strait are written by
constructs the other. [63] The claim to have
men who really went there
“seen for oneself” is a recurring motif in late
themselves and traversed the
imperial Chinese travel literature, with
territory. Therefore, what they
travelers insisting that “I have been there
have to say about the mountains
myself and seen with my own eyes,” or “I am
and streams, the environment,
only recording that which I have seen with my
customs, and products can be
own eyes.” [64] Another frequent move is for
trusted. [70]
the traveler to refute common beliefs about a
place based on what he has seen firsthand. As
Ming literatus Zhang Hong explained after a
journey to eastern Zhejiang in 1639, “About Thus, among the various forms of geographic
half [of the things I saw there] did not agree records available to Qing readers, travel
with what I had heard. So when I returned I got writing, as a document of personal experience,

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had privileged status. Travel writers cracks of disciplinary divisions.

themselves frequently claimed that only those
with firsthand experience could produce
reliable geographic knowledge—thereby Craig Clunas has recently argued for the
importance of pictures (tu) and visuality in
bolstering their own authority. Qing literati
early modern China and demonstrated that
also considered it crucial for topographical
pictures permeated virtually every aspect of life
pictures, especially maps, to be based on
in this period. [75] Certainly, visual materials,
empirical observation. This does not mean that
especially maps and astronomical charts, had
artists necessarily drew pictures from life.
long been considered vital to geographic
Rather, pictures might be produced (either by
knowledge in China. [76] By the Ming,
the traveler or by a professional painter) based
illustrated books of all kinds, including
on the traveler’s memory of what he had seen
geographic works, were widely available. Thus,
or perhaps samples of plants and other
readers were accustomed to looking at pictures
products that he had collected. Nonetheless,
in conjunction with texts. Robert Hegel’s study
the basis in firsthand experience is what
of Ming and Qing illustrated fiction has also
theoretically separated the topographical
greatly added to our understanding of the
picture from an imaginative painting, just as it
theory and practice of reading texts with
separated the travel account from fiction. [71]
pictures. Following the approach suggested by
scholars like Clunas and Hegel, I seek to
Given the importance of “seeing for oneself,” it reinsert the reading of pictures into the reading
is not surprising that travelers like Zhang Hong of travel literature. [77]
chose to record their experiences in visual as
well as textual forms. Indeed, art historians The idea that topographical pictures represent
have written much on the association between an important complement to written texts in
domestic Chinese tourist travel and landscape the production of geographic knowledge was
painting (shanshui hua). But comparatively succinctly expressed by Xia Xianlun, the
little has been written on the traveler’s compiler of a nineteenth-century collection of
involvement with the class of visual materials Taiwan maps (see Figs. 12 and 13):
known as tu, a broad term that includes
pictures, illustrations, maps, charts, and
diagrams. [72] This neglect is largely due to the
low status of vernacular visual forms within the The ancients had histories on their
discipline of art history. As art historian James right and maps (tu) on their left,
Cahill writes of Chinese pictorial maps: “Many granting equal importance to
such picture-maps were painted in China from visualizing and perusing (guanlan).
early to recent times, but they have received When [Han dynasty general] Xiao
He entered the passes, the first
little attention from either Chinese or foreign
thing he did was to collect maps
scholars, because they have been considered
and written records. Without maps,
(usually with good reason) to have practical
one cannot have comprehensive
rather than aesthetic value.” [73] At the same
knowledge of all the roads and
time, historians and scholars of cartography
their obstacles, of the terrain and
have traditionally discounted pictorial maps on
its strategic passes. [78]
the grounds that such maps have more
aesthetic than practical value. [74] Pictorial
maps and other kinds of topographical pictures
have therefore largely fallen between the Xia emphasized the importance of looking in

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addition to reading, implying that images allow others have demonstrated that gazetteer maps,
for a different way of comprehending space and for example, were primarily intended as
place than words alone. Thus text and pictures illustrative accompaniments to the gazetteer
are essential to one another: visual knowledge text, which contained verbal descriptions of the
was an important counterpart to textual geography. Maps provided a general idea of the
knowledge. topography and aided in understanding the
spatial relations between these landmarks (see
Figs. 14a and b). The text supplied such
detailed information as distances between
locations and the names of villages, mountains,
and other topographical features. Map and text
thus assumed complementary functions, with
maps allowing for qualitative understandings of
the terrain and texts providing quantitative
geo-graphical information. This complementary
relation was expressed in the idea that the
“narration of events without maps is not clear,
and maps without explanation are not
intelligible.” [79] A similar dynamic can be seen
in a genre known as “pictures with
explanations” (tushuo), which combined
Figure 12. Xia Xianlun’s “General Map of the Cismontane pictures and explanatory text. Thus, word and
and image worked together in the production of
Transmontane Territory” from Maps of Taiwan with
geographic knowledge.
Explanations (1879)a

Figure 13. Xia Xianlun’s “General Map of the Figure 14a. Map of Fengshan County from the Taiwan
Transmontane Prefectural
Territory” from Maps of Taiwan with Explanations (1879) Gazetteer (1696)

Word and image enjoyed a kind of

complementary division of labor in late imperial
geographic representation. Cordell Yee and

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an examination of literary texts alone.

Therefore, a more complete understanding of
the cultural meanings that the frontier had for
the Qing can be gained by examining pictures
in conjunction with texts such as travel
accounts and gazetteers.

As a study of Qing colonial discourse, my work

necessarily privileges both texts and the
perspective of the Qing elite. [81] This is
largely a function of my sources: travel
accounts, gazetteers, maps, pictures, and other
documents produced by Qing literati. Due to
this limitation, neither the perspective of the
Figure 14b. Map of Zhuluo County from the Taiwan
Prefectural Taiwan indigenes nor that of the Han Chinese
Gazetteer (1696) settlers is represented.

The Qing court clearly recognized the political The Qing Transformation of Taiwan
importance of visual in addition to textual
knowledge of the frontiers. For the Qing, the
visual representation of the frontiers, especially After the Qing conquest of the island, the
mapping, was bound up with the assertion of court’s Taiwan policy went through a number
imperial power on both the practical and the of phases over the course of the next two
symbolic levels. [80] And so the Qing sponsored centuries. John Shepherd’s Statecraft and
works such as the Kangxi-Jesuit atlas and the Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier,
Qing Imperial Tribute Illustrations. The 1600–1800 gives a detailed and thorough
Qianlong emperor also commissioned a series account of these policy shifts during the first
of French copperplate engravings to century of Qing rule on Taiwan. According to
commemorate Qing conquests on the frontiers. Shepherd, the Qing court alternated between a
Such pictures helped not only to visualize the pro-quarantine approach and a pro-colonization
extent of Qing imperial possessions but also to approach to Taiwan policy throughout this
define, order, and celebrate these possessions. period. [82] Pro-quarantine policies sought to
Pictures therefore played an important role in preserve the status quo on the island by
the fashioning of empire. restricting Chinese immigration to Taiwan and
protecting the indigenes’ land rights. Pro-
colonization policies promoted Chinese
Although the surviving visual record of the immigration and the aggressive appropriation
Qing frontiers is far smaller than the textual of indigenous lands for Chinese settlers.
record, it is no less significant. Like travel Policymakers alternated between these two
writing, pictures are a highly mediated form of orientations, as they sought to balance the
representation: thus, these images reveal a interests of the indigenous people and the
great deal about how Qing travelers “saw” the Chinese settlers and thereby avoid costly
frontier. In reinserting pictures into the reading conflict on the frontier.
of travel literature, I demonstrate that an
examination of pictures may bring to the fore
issues or perspectives that do not emerge from Despite the efforts of pro-quarantine officials,

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the Qing could not stem the tide of Han “the ball of mud” was now considered a “land
Chinese immigration to this frontier, and by the of Green Gold.” [83]
nineteenth century, the court had decided to
proceed with the final colonization of the island
as a whole. In 1875, the Qing adopted the In 1895, only a short time after Taiwan had
“Open the Mountains and Pacify the Savages” become an official province of China, the Qing
(kaishan fufan) policy. were forced by their defeat in the Sino-
Japanese war to cede the island to Japan. The
reaction of Chinese elites to the signing of the
This policy legalized the entry of Han Chinese Treaty of Shimonoseki demonstrates how far
settlers into the last of the remaining Chinese ideas about Taiwan had come since
indigenous territory on the island. In order to annexation. Officials and students in China
accomplish this appropriation of lands, the vigorously protested the Treaty, signing
Qing employed the military to “pacify the declarations condemning what they called the
savages.” With the adoption of this policy, the “selling of national territory,” and the “severing
tenuous balance between Han Chinese of the nation.” Whereas Chinese officials two
interests and indigenous interests definitively centuries earlier had protested the annexation
tipped in favor of the Chinese settlers. When of Taiwan as a waste of money, these
Taiwan was promoted to provincehood in 1887, protesters now declared that Taiwan should not
it seemed that the island was to be once and for be sold for any price. Pessimists predicted that
all Chinese terrain. once this piece of China was lost, the rest
would soon fall like dominoes to imperial
aggressors.
When the Qing first conquered Taiwan, there
were only a handful of firsthand accounts of the
island. Thus, the Ming image of the island as a Writers also mourned the loss of Taiwan in
“ball of mud” predominated. Over the course of their private writings. As one nostalgic traveler
two centuries of Qing colonial rule, Chinese wrote: “Does this not hurt? Is this not cause for
literati produced a significant corpus of travel regret? How I blame the responsible officials
accounts, maps, and pictures of Taiwan, who severed our national territory to end the
providing a wealth of knowledge about the [Sino-Japanese] war!.... I cannot stop the flood
once-unknown island and concomitantly of my old tears. Alas!” [84] That the loss of
transforming its image. The pioneering Qing Taiwan could evoke such emotions in writers
writers strove to make the island known and like this reveals the profound change in the
struggled with the question whether the island idea of Taiwan’s place in China’s imagined
was worth colonizing. In the eighteenth geography. The image of Taiwan severed, or
century, when the issue of annexation had been cut off, from China implies that Taiwan had
settled, colonial officials recognized the need come to be conceptualized as an integral part
for accurate geographic information about the of the Chinese geo-body. Taiwan was no longer
island. Eighteenth-century authors rejected the a lone ball of mud beyond the seas, but a full
works of the earlier period as unreliable and part of China’s terrain, which would have to be
attempted to replace these writings with their “reunified” in order to make the national body
own empirical observations. It was during this whole again. The act of severing leaves a scar,
second phase that the dominant tropes of Qing a constant reminder of the pain of the knife:
colonial discourse about Taiwan emerged. By hence the “old tears” that our author sheds.
the nineteenth century, Chinese attitudes The “loss” of the island to the Japanese only
toward Taiwan and the material conditions of served to convert Chinese nationalists even
the colony had changed so dramatically that more ardently to the idea that Taiwan rightfully

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belonged to China. The history of frontier travel province” that must be “reunified” in order to
literature thus traces the emergence of Chinese restore China’s territorial integrity we see the
nationalist sentiment toward Taiwan. lasting impact of Qing expansionism on the
imagined geography of the modern Chinese
nation-state.
The scar that was left when Japan annexed
Taiwan was temporarily healed when China—
this time the Republic of China—once again Emma J. Teng is an Associate Professor of
took possession of the island following World Chinese Studies at the Massachusetts Institute
War II. But the wound would be opened four of Technology. She is the author of Taiwan’s
years later by the Chinese Civil War. With the Imagined Geography: Chinese Colonial Travel
victory of the Chinese Communists (CCP) Writing, 1683–1895, from which the present
imminent, the Chinese Nationalists (KMT) text is drawn. She is currently working on
packed up their government, army, and many Chinese and Chinese American representations
of the treasures of the Qing Imperial of Eurasian interracialism at the turn of the
collections, and fled to Taiwan, establishing a 20th century. Her publications on this subject
provisional government of the Republic of include “Eurasian Hybridity in Chinese Utopian
China on the island. Visions: From ‘One World’ to a ‘Society Based
on Beauty’ and Beyond,” positions: east asia
cultures critique (Volume 14.1, Spring 2006).
It was out of this history of the Chinese Civil Posted at Japan Focus on June 14, 2007.
War that the current “Taiwan issue” emerged,
with the KMT declaring the provisional
government on Taiwan the legitimate Notes
government of “Free China,” and the PRC
staking its claim over the “renegade province”
1. There is some ambiguity in the English word
of Taiwan. In order to bolster the legitimacy of
“Chinese,” since it refers to two different
these claims, both sides promoted the
Chinese concepts, Hua and Han. The latter is a
historically inaccurate contention that Taiwan
more restrictive term that refers to the majority
has been “a part of China” since antiquity and
Han Chinese ethnic group.
effectively erased the rich history of the Qing
colonization of the island. This Chinese
nationalist discourse (both the KMT and the 2. Yu Yonghe, Pihai jiyou, p. 1.
CCP varieties) has naturalized the idea that
Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s
sovereign territory, a sacred part of the 3. “Zheng Chenggong” in Mandarin Chinese.
Chinese geo-body. The success of this discourse
can be measured by the disappearance from
the Chinese collective memory of the pre-Qing 4. See Yu Yonghe, Pihai jiyou, p. 31.
conviction that Taiwan was “beyond the pale.”
5. Shi Lang, Jinghai jishi, p. 60.
In Taiwan’s gradual transformation from a
“savage island” into a “Chinese province” we 6. Millward, Beyond the Pass, p. 37; Waldron,
see the profound changes in the imagined The Great Wall of China, pp. 42–43.
geography of the Chinese domain wrought by
Qing expansionism. In the contemporary
construction of Taiwan as a “renegade 7. In this work I use the word “comparable” in

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the sense of “suitable for comparison.” See 15. Doyle, Empires, p. 45.
Perdue, “Comparing Empires,” pp. 255–61;
Adas, “Imperialism and Colonialism in
Comparative Perspective”; Harrell, 16. Parry, “Problems in Current Theories of
“Introduction”; and Millward, “New Colonial Discourse,” p. 34; Thomas,
Perspectives on the Qing Frontier.” Colonialism’s Culture, p. 9.

8. See Perdue, “Boundaries, Maps, and 17. See the Epilogue.

Movement.”
18. Said, Culture and Imperialism, p. 9.
9. The term “renegade province” is used in U.S.
media to represent the PRC’s position on
19. Spurr, The Rhetoric of Empire, p. 5.
Taiwan, but it is not a Chinese phrase. My
thanks to Tom Christensen for pointing this
out. 20. Williams, Keywords, p. 160.

10. Foreign Desk, “China’s Statement,” p. 10. 21. Said, Culture and Imperialism, p. 9.

11. See Christensen, “Posing Problems Without 22. Thomas, Colonialism’s Culture, p. 2.
Catching Up.” See also Cohen and Teng, Let
Taiwan Be Taiwan.
23. As Peter Perdue (“Comparing Empires,” p.
255) has provocatively argued: “The Qing
12. This is not to deny that ethnic Chinese
Empire of China was a colonial empire that
families on Taiwan, including my own, have
ruled over a diverse collection of peoples with
ancestral ties to China, just as many Americans
separate identities and deserves comparison
have ancestral ties to England.
with other empires.”

13. For a critique of this “China as victim”

24. See ibid.; Perdue, “Boundaries, Maps, and
approach, see Millward, Beyond the Pass, p.
Movement”; Shepherd, Statecraft and Political
16. On the problematic of applying
Economy on the Taiwan Frontier; and
“postcolonial discourse” to China, see Lee,
Hostetler, Qing Colonial Enterprise.
Shanghai Modern, pp. 308–9.

25. Ding, Dongying zhilüe, p. 79.

14. For example, a recent publication of the
National Museum of Chinese History includes
this statement under the heading of “National 26. Hostetler, Qing Colonial Enterprise, pp.
Unification”: “During the Qing Dynasty, the 37–41.
political, economic and cultural relations
among various nationalities became
increasingly harmonious, reinforcing the 27. For example, the Qing required Han
foundation of national unity” (Yu Weichao, A Chinese men to adopt the Manchu hairstyle of
Journey into China’s Antiquity, p. 164). the queue.

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28. On the multiethnic composition of the Qing time, this is not to say that Western colonial
military, see Crossley, “The Qianlong discourse theory is universally applicable
Retrospect of the Chinese-Martial (hanjun) without regard to cultural specificity. This
Banners.” study attempts to walk the fine line between
these two extreme positions.

29. In Taiwan, the Qing recruited indigenous

troops for deployment against rebellious Han 34. Gladney, “Representing Nationality in
settlers. In response, Han Chinese settlers China,” p. 94; Schein, “Gender and Internal
sometimes forged alliances with rival Orientalism in China,” p. 70.
indigenous groups against these troops; see
Shepherd, Statecraft and Political Economy on
the Taiwan Frontier. For more recent work on 35. See Crossley, “Thinking About Ethnicity in
“ethnic politics” on the Taiwan frontiers, see Early Modern China.”
Ka, Fan toujia.
36. Despite the fact that the recent mapping of
30. Thomas, Colonialism’s Culture; Stoler, the human genome has demonstrated that
“Rethinking Colonial Categories”; there is no genetic basis for race, the current
JanMohammed, “The Economy of Manichean obsession with Tiger Woods shows that the idea
Allegory”; Bhabha, The Location of Culture. of race is alive and well in twenty-first-century
America.

31. See, e.g., Millward, Beyond the Pass;

Perdue, China Marches West; Gaubatz, Beyond 37. For the development of nineteenth-century
the Great Wall; Shepherd, Statecraft and racial theory, especially the debate over
Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier; monogenesis and polygenesis, see Young,
Herman, “Empire in the Southwest”; Giersch, Colonial Desire. See also Stocking, Race,
“‘A Motley Throng.’” Culture, and Evolution.

32. Said, Orientalism; Said, Culture and 38. My research into issues of race and
Imperialism; Lowe, Critical Terrains; ethnicity builds on the work of scholars such as
Greenblatt, New World Encounters; Spurr, The Pamela Kyle Crossley, Frank Dikötter, Stevan
Rhetoric of Empire. Harrell, Dru Gladney, and others. See Crossley,
“Thinking About Ethnicity in Early Modern
China”; Dikötter, The Discourse of Race in
33. All this is not to argue, of course, that Qing Modern China; Harrell, “Introduction”; and
colonial discourse is identical to European Gladney, Muslim Chinese.
Orientalism (which itself had many variations,
British, French, etc.). It is simply to say that
Orientalism was not a uniquely European 39. Although I use the terms “race” and
phenomenon and that the Chinese had a “ethnicity” in this work to describe Qing ideas
roughly equivalent discourse by which they about human difference, in referring to
produced their others (a category that included historical aspects of Qing frontier management
Europeans). Indeed, the very idea of I follow James Millward in using the term
comparison undermines the Orientalist notion “ethnic.” As Millward (Beyond the Pass, p. 14n)
that China is “utterly different” from the West notes: “In describing these categories in
and therefore beyond comparison. At the same general terms, it is extremely convenient to

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have a single word for this sort of distinction.” often included in their narrative accounts.
Thus I speak of “ethnic policy,” “ethnic
groups,” and “interethnic conflict.” Whenever
possible, I have avoided the awkward 52. The notion of the “travelogue” (youji) as a
construction “race/ethnicity.” distinct Chinese genre is essentially a modern
invention.

40. Crossley, “Thinking About Ethnicity in Early

Modern China,” p. 8. 53. These include the genres of shanshui hua
(landscape painting), renwu hua (figure
painting), huaniao hua (bird-and-flower
41. Ching, Becoming “Japanese.” painting), and jiehua (ruled-line or
architectural drawing). The format of such
works included the painted handscroll, the
42. Said, Culture and Imperialism, p. 7. hanging scroll, the painted album, the painted
fan, the woodblock print, and the line drawing.
The tu produced by such professionals are
43. Said, Orientalism, p. 54.
finely rendered gongbi works, painted in color
on paper or silk. Less privileged travelers, and
44. Schwartz, “The Geography Lesson,” p. 36; gazetteer compilers who did not enjoy the
Godlewska, “Map, Text, and Image”; services of a professional painter, had to settle
for producing their own drawings. These
Gregory, Geographical Imaginations. drawings served as the basis for the woodblock
prints reproduced in the gazetteers. The quality
of tu thus ranges from the painterly to the
45. Anderson, Imagined Communities, p. 15. sketchy.

46. Thongchai, Siam Mapped, p. 17. 54. Elman, “Geographical Research in the
Ming-Ch’ing Period.”
47. I propose that one key difference between
the territoriality of nations and empires is that 55. See, e.g., Zeitlin, Historian of the Strange,
the boundaries of the nation are generally p. 11.
imagined as fixed, whereas the boundaries of
the empire are often imagined as expandable.
56. Strassberg, Inscribed Landscapes.

48. Said, Orientalism, p. 54.

57. Schafer, The Vermilion Bird, p. 128.

49. Liu-shi-qi, Fanshe caifeng tukao, p. 99.

58. Yu Yonghe, Pihai jiyou, p. 27.

50. Such information was either culled from the

local gazetteers or based on officials’ own 59. Dong, Taihai jianwen lu, p. 1.
observations during tours of inspection.

60. Other similar, but less ambitious,

51. Travelers also composed poetry, which they anthologies include the Geographic Collectanea

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of Imperial Dynastic Barbarian Colonies wrong. Moreover, travel writers often

(Huangchao fanshu yudi congshu) and the Five emphasize that they record only what they
Collected Works on the Frontiers (Bian¬jiang personally witnessed and exclude any material
wuzhong). that could be considered hearsay. Thus, despite
the fact that one subgenre of travel writing is
called wenjian lu (records of things heard and
61. Wang Xiqi’s mammoth travel anthology, for seen), I would argue that seeing is still the
example, contains no pictures. privileged term: that is, wen is no good without
jian.
62. Liu-shi-qi, Fanshe caifeng tukao, p. 20.
68. Similarly, Anthony Pagden (“Ius et
Factum”) and Clifford Geertz (Works and Lives)
63. Pratt, Imperial Eyes, p. 5.
have argued that it is through the sense of
sight that the travel writer constructs the
64. It was the desire to see for himself that authority of his account.
motivated Yu Yonghe, for example.
69. See Pagden, “Ius et Factum.”
65. Quoted in Cahill, Chinese Painting of the
Late Ming Dynasty, p. 39. Zhang Hong’s
70. Wu Xiqi, “Preface,” in Zhai, Taiyang biji, p.
comment further suggests that he viewed
1.
mimetic representation as an important
function of painting. Zhang implied that what is
pictured on silk directly correlates to, or 71. The notion that only firsthand experience
imitates, that which is seen with the eyes. In could guarantee the reliability of geographic
representing “what he has seen” on silk, Zhang information became a particular problem on
attempted to translate visual experience the frontier. In Taiwan, for example, the dense
directly into visual artifact. In contrast, travel jungle of the mountainous areas was often
writing translates visual experience into words. impenetrable to Chinese travelers. Such terrain
Through the production of such an image, was, therefore, impossible to map and difficult
Zhang hoped to enable the viewer to “rely on to document. When firsthand information was
the eyes,” thereby deriving more authoritative unattainable, hearsay had to substitute for
knowledge, perhaps, than could be found empirical observations. For the frontiers, then,
through reading a travelogue. the expansion of geographic knowledge often
went hand in hand with the extension of
Chinese control.
66. The importance of visuality in late imperial
Chinese travel writing is underscored by the
fact that vivid description is commonly praised 72. Unlike landscape paintings, or other kinds
as ruhua, “like a painting,” or rutu, “like a of hua, which could stand on their own as
picture.” objects of appreciation, these tu were generally
produced and consumed in conjunction with
written texts.
67. Travelers, including the famous Xu Xiake,
frequently mention being inspired to travel by a
desire to ascertain whether what they have 73. Cahill, Chinese Painting of the Late Ming
heard about a particular place is either right or Dynasty, pp. 206–7.

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74. Cordell Yee is one notable exception. and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier.

75. Clunas, Pictures and Visuality in Early 83. “Green Gold” is a Chinese term for tea; see
Modern China. Etherington and Forster, Green Gold.

76. Maps and other tu were a central 84. Chi Zhizheng, Quan Tai youji (Travelogue of
component of local gazetteers, as well as the all Taiwan), preface.
more comprehensive Yitong zhi. Cosmological
diagrams and charts were produced with the
hopes of making visible the “patterns of Works Cited
Heaven” (tianwen). Emperors as far back as the
Liang dynasty (502–77) commissioned the Adas, Michazel. “Imperialism and Colonialism
painting of tribute illustrations (zhigong tu) to in Comparative Perspective.” International
record the appearance of foreign peoples. History Review 20, no. 2 (1998): 371–88.
Illustrated versions of the Shanhaijing (Classic
of mountains and seas) were in circulation at
least by Tao Qian’s (365–427) time. Many of Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities:
these tu have been analyzed by scholars of Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
geography, cartography, and the history of Nationalism. Rev. ed. London: Verso, 1991.
science in China.

Banks, Marcus, and Howard Morphy, eds.

77. The role of the visual in anthropology has Rethinking Visual Anthropology. New Haven:
also become a subject of renewed interest in Yale University Press, 1997.
recent years; see Banks and Morphy,
Rethinking Visual Anthropology.
Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture.
London: Routledge, 1994.
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Cahill, James. Chinese Painting of the Late

79. Yee, “Chinese Maps in Political Culture,” p. Ming Dynasty, 1570–1644. New York:
91. Weatherhill, 1982.

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