Abstract
ABSTRACT Focussing on Florence Ayscough’s A Chinese Mirror (1925), this article examines the potential for vertical travel to have political and ethical implications. Born in China, Asycough was a Shanghai-based sinologist who garnered an international reputation for translating Chinese literature and culture. Well-qualified for this task through her extensive knowledge of local history, language, literature and culture, Ayscough revises the horizontal axes of travel and writing that were dominant in the 1920s, turning her life in Shanghai and her journey along the Yangtze River into vertical travels involving new modes of microspection. The article argues that Ayscough’s writing demonstrates how vertical travel could be deployed to resist and critique imperial aspirations and their reliance on violence, domination and existing hierarchies of culture and nature, self and other. It reveals the significance of verticality in her critique of British imperialism and her self-representation as a cosmopolitan with cultivated distance from Eurocentrism.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
