Appropriation of the "Other" : Contrasting Notions of China in British Literature

This paper uses Oliver Goldsmith’s The Citizen of the World and W. Somerset Maugham’s On a Chinese Screen as two examples to illustrate how and why different notions of China have been appropriated. The discussion builds upon and seeks to expand a long tradition of Chinese interest in their presentations in Western literature by linking the two texts to their respective epochal ethos.