晚清海外遊記的博物館書寫

The Writing of Museum in Late Qing Overseas Travel Notes

博物館陳列各國文物，匯集多種物質文明，為多數晚清海外旅人必訪之處。博物館提供了一個有趣的隱喻場域，壓縮時間與空間，讓旅人們得以從物質展示中窺看被他者建構的多元文化。從博與奇的敘述到系統化的秩序建構，晚清旅人筆下的博物館逐漸由蒐奇之處拓展至具備公共教育意義的知識性場所。館中的中國器物提供旅人於異地重新觀看自我的機會，被刻意醜化的扭曲形象、淪為列強戰利品的故國文物皆召喚出一個古老衰敗帝國，博物館的完善制度同時也帶給旅人對未來中國的美好想像。日本博物館以符合西方的秩序體系成為旅人眼中的文明象徵，甲午戰後的赴日旅人在其中經歷更強烈的衝擊，家國物件被島國鄰居以新模式收編為落後付表，重新翻轉兩國定位。

Displaying cultural artifacts from various countries and a converging point of the material cultures of various civilizations, the museum was an attraction for the majority of travelers during the late Qing dynasty. Through the compression of time and space on its premises, the museum provides an interesting “metaphoric field” and the opportunity for travelers to catch a glimpse of diverse cultures built by others through the display of material objects. From bizarre narratives to a more systematic construction of order, the museum as described in the writings of late Qing travelers gradually developed from a place that showcased the odd and the fantastic to a site for public edification. The Chinese artifacts in the museum provided travelers with the opportunity to revisit the self in a foreign place, with the twisted and vilified images and the artifacts of the motherland looted by the contemporary superpowers conjuring up the vision of an ancient empire in decline. Simultaneously, the museum's comprehensive structure and system also presented travelers with positive images of China's future. In Japan, the museum, shaped along Western lines of order, became a symbol of civilization for travelers; after the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), Chinese travelers to Japan were even more awestruck than to the West. The collection, organization, and presentation of the cultural objects of the motherland by its neighboring country, as representative of a nation's decline, in turn, upended the two nations' relative positions.