Maritime Poetry Road: East Asian Routes and Nanyang Mesology

Maritime Poetry Road: East Asian Routes and Nanyang Mesology opens up a maritime perspective on modern Chinese classical poetry, examining the cultural landscapes and literary dynamics of journeys across seas through the interconnected networks of islands, ports, and sea routes. This book focuses on the East Asian sea routes and the South China Sea from the 18th century onwards, exploring Chinese migration along these routes, overseas diplomatic missions, and the world of the southern islands as revealed through poetry and travelogues. It also delves into the geopolitical conditions of colonial ports, Chinese communities, and the unique cultural landscapes shaped by dialects and local vernaculars in the equatorial and Southeast Asian regions. Moreover, the book provides a profound analysis of the crisis and continuity of Chinese/ Huawen under the impact of war.

Tracing the historical development of Chinese classical poetry written overseas, the book begins with the interplay of humans, the sea, and land, and unfolds a detailed examination of maritime Chinese poetry, connecting it with various literary spaces. The poetic routes not only reflect the cultural journeys and literary trajectories shaped by the surrounding waters but also depict the relational dynamics of Chinese poetry along different sea routes over time. This work reveals how transnational movements, maritime consciousness, and overseas encounters influenced the rhetoric of classical literary forms and the sensory structures of literatis. Maritime Poetry Road: East Asian Routes and Nanyang Mesology presents the historical entanglement of poetry and sea routes, offering a new interpretive framework for the poetics of modern overseas Chinese classical poetry, while guiding readers into the multiple southern worlds through the lens of literature.