ABSTRACT
This conclusion present some closing thoughts on concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book demonstrates that national interests in China did not remain static but changed over the years because alliances affected media images and political debates about China. American newspapers and magazines constantly told their readers about the experiences of American missionaries in China, and often printed letters or statements of local missionaries who were in China or had recently returned from China. The American government also referred to American Exceptionalism to legitimize its China policies, and presented the USA as different from the other foreign powers in China, namely without territorial ambitions and as a champion of democracy. An analysis of media portrayals of China reveals that articles about China not only contained a great deal of information about national self-perceptions but that they contributed to the discursive construction of nationhood.
