FullText
Title
Author(s)
"Of human bondage": Somerset Maugham in China
Zhang, Yanping; 张燕萍
Citation
Issue Date
URL
Rights
2011
http://hdl.handle.net/10722/133977
The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.
“Of Human Bondage:”
Somerset Maugham in China by Zhang Yanping
（张燕萍）
B.A. Fudan.
February 2011
A thesis submitted for the Degree of Master of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong
Abstract of thesis entitled
“‘Of Human Bondage:’
Somerset Maugham in China”
Submitted by
Zhang Yanping for the degree of Master of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in February 2011
This is a study of the British writer Somerset Maugham’s encounter with China.
It is motivated by the thought that Maugham’s trip to China, which so far has almost been unattended, may provide us with a vantage point to understand the writer, his writings and the specific historical condition which “writes” the writer and his literary texts and which is in turn constructed by them. Moreover, Maugham’s writings about
China are active participants in the construction and distribution of the British imperial ideology. Hopefully, a study of Maugham’s writings about China will also contribute to the study of imperial discourse in general and the study of Western construction of China in the early 20th century in particular.
As one of the most widely-travelled writers in literary history, Maugham is largely associated with the British Empire in the East. Between 1916 and 1926, he made extensive trips to the South Seas and the Far East. In the autumn of 1919,
Maugham visited China with his same-sex partner Gerald Haxton. Together they stayed in China for four months and left in 1920. As the first destination of
Maugham’s Far Eastern trips, China inspires works that constitute a fairly large portion in the corpus of Maugham’s exotic writings. The fruits of the trip include a
travel book On a Chinese Screen (1922), a Peking-based play
Author(s)
"Of human bondage": Somerset Maugham in China
Zhang, Yanping; 张燕萍
Citation
Issue Date
URL
Rights
2011
http://hdl.handle.net/10722/133977
The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.
“Of Human Bondage:”
Somerset Maugham in China by Zhang Yanping
（张燕萍）
B.A. Fudan.
February 2011
A thesis submitted for the Degree of Master of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong
Abstract of thesis entitled
“‘Of Human Bondage:’
Somerset Maugham in China”
Submitted by
Zhang Yanping for the degree of Master of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in February 2011
This is a study of the British writer Somerset Maugham’s encounter with China.
It is motivated by the thought that Maugham’s trip to China, which so far has almost been unattended, may provide us with a vantage point to understand the writer, his writings and the specific historical condition which “writes” the writer and his literary texts and which is in turn constructed by them. Moreover, Maugham’s writings about
China are active participants in the construction and distribution of the British imperial ideology. Hopefully, a study of Maugham’s writings about China will also contribute to the study of imperial discourse in general and the study of Western construction of China in the early 20th century in particular.
As one of the most widely-travelled writers in literary history, Maugham is largely associated with the British Empire in the East. Between 1916 and 1926, he made extensive trips to the South Seas and the Far East. In the autumn of 1919,
Maugham visited China with his same-sex partner Gerald Haxton. Together they stayed in China for four months and left in 1920. As the first destination of
Maugham’s Far Eastern trips, China inspires works that constitute a fairly large portion in the corpus of Maugham’s exotic writings. The fruits of the trip include a
travel book On a Chinese Screen (1922), a Peking-based play
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