Geographic Travel, Literary Travel and Worldly Travel: Women’s travel writing from Late Ming to 1840

• In Event: Her Life in Her Own Words: Discovering Alternative Voices in Chinese Women’s Writing

Abstract

In Ming and Qing dynasties, many poetesses ventured out of their boudoirs and rear gardens and traveled to unknown places. In her study on women travelers in late imperial China, Dorothy Ko divided them into three types: those following their men to new posts; those traveling for pleasure, and those living life as professional women writers, artists and courtesans. In this paper, I will examine women’s travel writing from the late Ming period through 1840 and discuss how, through the literary representation of their travel experience, these women writers reflect on the traditional mode of learning by “reading ten thousand books and traveling ten thousand miles.” Women writers I will study include Weng Ru’an翁孺安), Li Yin 李因, Xu Deyin徐德音 and Xi Peilan 席佩蘭. I will also compare travel writings by male and female authors to show how women's unique physical, spiritual and cultural experiences blur traditional gender boundaries in literature. Finally, I will trace the origin of women’s travel writing to Ban Zhao’s 班昭 "Dong Zheng Fu"東征賦 and explore the significance of traveling writing by Ming and Qing women in constructing a history of women’s literature.

Author

• Shiling Yu, Nanjing University