Travelling as Political Engagement Controvoglia: Alberto Moravia’s Voyages to China in 1937, 1967, and 1986

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over a period of half a century, Alberto Moravia visited China three times, producing valuable travel accounts and completely different portrayals of the country, people, culture, and society. As a young reporter for Gazzetta del popolo in 1937, he narrated a dying civilisation facing internal wars and foreign interference. In 1967, he depicted the People’s Republic of China in the years of the Cultural Revolution and the so-called Maoist utopia. In 1986, Moravia produced a disillusioned account of post-Maoist industrial Chinese society. In this comparative study, I situate Alberto Moravia’s travels and his travel writings on China in the canonical production of knowledge on the country in relation to Italy’s intellectual background in three consecutive timeframes: 1930s, 1960s, and 1980s. I argue that Moravia’s travel narratives display a dialogue between the dominant rhetoric on China in each period and Moravia’s political engagement and worldview, themselves changing and evolving over time.