"McDowall's conceptual rethinking casts important new light on the Chinese 'travel journal', a genre of Chinese belles-lettres that has been unjustly neglected. His subtle, many layered interpretation, in its broadly conceived cultural reading of the youj

"This is a meticulously researched monograph of impeccable scholarship. It is the most thorough study of a Chinese travel diary I've ever seen rich in its insights, measured in its claims, punctilious in its philology, the book provides an invaluable insi

Stephen McDowall attained his PhD in Chinese Studies from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand in 2007, and currently works as Research Fellow in the Department of History, University of Warwick, UK. His research interests include Ming material and visual culture, travel writing, comparative literature, China in the Western imagination, and global connections in the early modern world.