Mapping the Third World

Abstract

There has been considerable attention in recent years to Chinese foreign economic relations as a result of the Belt-Road Initiative. China engages with emerging economies as a leader in rapid economic development and as an investor, employer, and a resource consumer. This intersects with current discussions of Chinese conceptions of world order, including prominent debates about the ancient notion of tianxia (“all under heaven”) and its relevance to China’s contemporary aspirational world view. Essays written by Chinese authors in the 1950s and early 1960s who traveled to Third World countries at the time articulate visions of China’s place in the world in concrete images and vivid emotions. This is examined within the broader context of Chinese travel writing and how, especially in the early modern and modern periods, travel writing has been used as a lens for Chinese self-imagining in the world context.