ABSTRACT
The images of Chinese alterity propagated there for consumption by Germany’s youth have their modest place in the long history of European mythopoeic renderings of the East. In German writing around 1900, the pairing of the antiquity of Chinese culture with stagnation, or, indeed, the inability to participate in world history. This chapter is concerned with literary fiction as the arena of imaginary encounters between China and the sons of the “belated” but furiously patriotic German Empire during 1900s. It examines a group of novels of travel and adventure, set in China, published in the years around 1900, which have long been forgotten. Reports on China in the world press for the year 1900 present a marked contrast to the fictional world of the novels in question, as they offer a much more differentiated spectrum of political and ideological stances. The proof that Germany offers the correct solution for China’s misery is provided by the flourishing “model colony” of Qingdao.
