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Journey to the West

In Our Time: Culture

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Ming China's Perceptions of the World

The novel is about a journey out of china. It's about fascination with places, with a foreign religion, buddhism. And as the pilgrims go west, they sometimes speak admiringly of the beauty of the non chinese cities that they encounter. But there is also a slightly odd thing going on with this journey, because however far the travellers,. the landscape doesn't seem to change that much, or it repeats itself. And strangely, the pilgrims don't seem to struggle with learning or speaking foreign languages. And the'r right at the end, the pilgrims return to china and to give the suitras back to the tang emperor.

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