【英文摘要】
As maritime transport technology gradually matured in the 19th century, globalization and transnational trades ensued. These changes contributed to crossregional cultural transmission, unveiling the Eastern world and driving
transnational travel-related text or travel writing. Overseas activities funded by newspapers, geographical societies, or religious communities facilitated frequent interactions between different cultures and gave birth to various natural history investigations, travel notes/informal essays, newsletters, among others. In this study, we examined Edward Howard House, an American journalist who came to Taiwan with the Japanese army during the Japanese punitive expedition to Taiwan in 1874, and The Japanese Expedition to Formosa, a book that he published in TOKIO in 1875.
Because House was extremely pro-Japan, his book was different from those about East Asia written by other Western authors at that time. The uniqueness of House’s book is more than him overlooking the various unfavorable conditions and trying hard to speak for the emerging Japan. House’s multiple identities and cultural experience were the epitome of expatriate journalists at that time. The observations of Asia that he reported to American newspapers also showed Westerners’involvement in East Asian regional geopolitics. In this study, we delved into the narrative strategies adopted by House as he told the story about the Japanese expedition to Taiwan as a third-party American journalist; the context behind writing such a story; and the effects that he wished to demonstrate. We explored the following three aspects using the perspective of cultural geography: (a) House’s experience, background, and relationship with the American newspaper industry; (b) the strategies and directions for/of writing The Japanese Expedition to Formosa; and (c) how Longkiau was developed in the narrative context as well as its purpose and roles.
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