Spaces of Circulation and (Re)creation of Knowledge

This article selects two texts as case studies to show the significant role geographical treatises and travelogues played in the formation of networks of exchange between China and the West. The two works considered are Wuzhou tukao 五洲圖考 [An exploration with maps of the five continents] by Gong Chai 龔柴 (?–1914?), Xu Bin 許彬 (?–1899?), and Xu Li 徐勵 (1851–1932), and Oumei manyou riji 歐美漫遊日記 [Diary of a journey in Europe and the United States] by Chen Yifu 陳一甫 (1869–1948) and his son Chen Dayou 陳達有 (exact dates unknown). This article situates the two texts in the context of historical and textual production in late Qing and Republican China, focusing on the role the texts and their authors played in the formation of extensive spaces of circulation between China and the West. It also looks at relevant human and scientific connections, in particular the function of both textual agency and the epistemic community the authors were part of in generating and spreading “Western knowledge” in late Qing and Republican China.