自中美交往开始,两国间实际上一直在想象与现实之间游走,大清帝国晚期败落的现实境遇同曾经无比辉煌的中华文明形成了巨大的反差。在早期美国人的想象之中,由陆续传入的各式文献典籍所构建起来的中国形象,始终是一个遥远、神秘、充满智慧却又难以理解的异邦,但这种情形到19世纪中后期开始发生了根本性的变化。1852年前后出现于美国 Since the exchanges between China and the United States, the two countries have actually been swimming between imagination and reality. The real situation of the decline of the Qing Empire in the late Qing Dynasty formed a huge contrast with the once excellent Chinese civilization. In the early American imagination, the image of China, which was built up from various kinds of documents and books imported successively, has always been a distant, mysterious, intelligent and incomprehensible alien. However, in the late mid-19th century The beginning of a fundamental change. Occurred in the United States around 1852