In the ancient times travelling was meant for pleasure where people could plan a trip and enjoy the natural features, resources, and other historical sites. Today travelling writing has been converted into an industry, evidenced with the increasing number of travelling facilities. Travelling has created different emotions that make people think of money and not leisure as it was before. In addition, the tourism sector is being exploited by many nations who have good sceneries by changing the industry into the money making organizations. Travelling has changed into a business where people travel with objectives of capturing the attractive objects and later selling them after making some changes on the pictures. Various authors have described how they engaged into travelling writing after discovering some attractive features on their way.
Key words: Travelling, leisure and writing.
Motive
The motives of this essay are to determine the main influencers for Chinese to write and take photos as they travel. Travelling was a useful custom in the ancient Chinese times because people gained a high degree of reputation through improving their understanding of the historic times. Those who travelled in foreign countries honored whatever objects they came across and could not attempt making a model of them. The modern Chinese is made of writers who travel for their own advantages. Their main motive being to communicate the observations they make in order to entertain and boost others who have no such chances. China has played a greater role in preserving its culture attracting many tourists from different nations. People have the pleasure of seeing the fields, rivers, and towns. Authors have come up with another option of taking pictures and recording videos of such places and selling them back to people with a profit (David 58-64).
Liang Yuchun is an author who studied the behavior of different people in China. Yuchun claims that travelling creates an atmosphere that gives an individual desire to make observations of various objects. Travelling that makes the mind unoccupied creates a better chance of catching good sight of something. Some people do not value travelling and take advantage of different sights and resources for business purposes. Yuchun’s motive was to establish the main motivators that make people write much as they travel to various destinations. Yuchun realized that most people prefer sitting and reading novels about certain historical events to creating time and visiting those areas. In addition, people have become so much occupied that they have no time for leisure unless they are travelling for compensation. Writing is an extremely appealing career because it gives an individual a sense of belonging after doing a thorough research about a certain topic. Chinese value their culture so much and have created various events in memory of their ancestors (Yuchun 240-241).
Methodology
On this section, several stories will be analyzed about travelling writing in China. Many authors have written essays and stories about their experience in writing showing how travelling contributed in developing various topics they write about. An author would travel for a purpose of improving the mind but the method employed is exaggerated because they are always busy looking for features to write about. These essays include;
The Priceless Moments of a Spring Morn: Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow by Jerome,
Splashing Oars and Lantern Light on the Qinhuai River by Zhu Ziqing, and
Liang Yuchun Commentary
Themes
The following essay discusses these themes:
1. Demonstrating the concept of travelling writing in the modern Chinese society,
2. Encouraging people to travel for leisure
3. Conservation of natural resources is essential for a country’s heritage.
Arguments
Jerome describes precious moments he spent at Spring Morn where he had gone to spend idle time. The author has been travelling for the last ten years in search of people and friends who could help in developing topics for his writings. Jerome is a lazy fellow who learned the benefit of waking up late and spending time sleeping under trees. In most cases, Jerome travelled for leisure but ended up gaining some ideas and putting them in writing. A travelling writer must have different ways of coping up with certain situations especially when visiting foreign countries. The writer of The Priceless Moments of a Spring Morn: Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow could travel to various tourist attraction centers in China and spend the whole day fantasizing about people’s lives. Jerome advocates about getting up late arguing that it gives an individual time to fantasize about life issues.
Travel blogging is one of the most common forms of travel writing adopted by many authors. Jerome expanded his scope in writing by including personal travel narratives that explain some facts of life. In addition, Jerome condemns spring seasons because the sun roses up as early as 6 in the morning denying him a chance to oversleep. The more focus on travelling writing in among Chinese communities has made writing the ever growing business irrespective of the author’s age or gender. Most people travelling to other countries from China always deliver a lot of information about others culture and lifestyles in writing. Jerome went as far as composing various songs that describe certain attractive features and events on the Chinese culture. Reading the essay, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, leaves the reader curious of spending time lying down. This essay is an essential descriptive of the reasons why people travel for writing purposes and not for leisure as it was the case during the ancient times.
The modern Chinese prose has shifted the language of writing from adventure to capitalism where national interests have been expanded. Some unknown parts in the country are being explored because they have a lot of business potential to the upcoming generation. In addition, most tourists are driven by various motives that include; search for opportunities in unexploited areas, use the scientific knowledge in developing businesses, and for personal prestige. The essay “Splashing Oars and Lantern Light on the Qinhuai River” narrates a story of travelers who enjoyed a ride along the river and ended up discovering many opportunities. The adventures the traveler came across assisted in writing a novel that is sold in large volumes in China. This is a clear indication of how tourists have turned the nation treasures into the money making ideas. After colonization, business, science and exploration came up in the world and penetrated into China. This gave way for people to travel free from one nation to the other.
Many nations have tried to pin down the aspect of travel writing but with no success. In some instances, writers create fiction stories just to win the attraction of their readers. The writer of the essay “Splashing Oars and Lantern Light on the Qinhuai River” could not justify how he made observations by the river at night. The story is interesting in that a reader longs to have the same experience as the writer. The curiosity created by our writers encourages more people to travel and also write about their experiences. The known motives for travelling is adventure where an individual gets lost and unknown, or traveling and forgetting whatever experience one gets. These differ from today’s motives where travelers must keep a record of what they went through in writing or photographs and videos. Moreover, people who visit such sceneries never find fun or surprise because they already have an idea of the feature found in such places.
Literature refers to writer’s creative work delivering an individual’s sentiment associated with day-to-day activates. Some writers have ignored this aspect and gone as far as using other people’s ideas in writing their own books. The type of travelling experienced in China today suggests how an individual’s mind is money oriented. Some of the best writings in the historical artifacts have been tempered with as travelers inscribe their own writings for recognition purposes. Moreover, travelling in the past was unplanned and an individual could just wake up and decide to take a walk by the river, or in the forest. Today’s generation composes of people who must schedule for a travel and make the necessary preparations to make the journey worth remembering. Even though people still travel for leisure today, the idea is very different because they always desire to discover something new and make money out of it.
China literary work presents various affections presented in forms of drawings, carvings, photographs and films. This does not allow people to add onto the information given to these presentations, or write an essay describing the meaning of certain parts of features in a presentation. Yuchun is one of the modern Chinese writers who describes how travelling motivates him to write. Yuchun has made several trips around China and in the outside world. His writings describe different natural phenomenon that an individual experiences while in a vacation. Most writers prefer travelling in lonely places where they can listen to the natural sound and make something out of it. In addition, the fact that an individual discovers a business opportunity in travelling, writing creates more desires to travel wide and see more features to deepen their thoughts.
Poet and writers sacrifice their time and energy while researching for new features to put in their books. Most Chinese writers focus on Chinese history since it has become more interesting. Many writers claim that travelling writing is no longer for leisure as it was in the past. The arguments are that people should adopt the modern developments make use of today’s innovations in creating wealth for the nation. The traditional writings on literature focused on creative processes that created a big respond to the external world. Chinese culture fills the gap of economics making it easier for one to narrate the story about Chinese society and its revolution. Travelling writing and sentiment of leisure in China assists in checking the health of infant socialistic society. Under this context, the story of young Kin Daojing’s childhood life is analyzed. Different Chinese artists competed for cultural dominance in different cities (Denton 15-18).
Conclusion
The modern Chinese prose is very different from the ancient time because the current generation has discovered various uses for the historical sites and objects. From the above essay there is a clear indication that with the current trend some scenes and objects will have no significant in the next 50 years. Chinese writers have turned into business oriented individuals who not only travel for leisure but also for business purposes. It requires a lot of effort in discovering the modern Chinese writers because some are not genuine while others write about fictions. This has ruined the country’s reputation and could lead into sending away potential tourists. Moreover, giving information regarding the natural and historic features found in a nation together with their photographs eliminates the essence of leisure travelling (Martin and Kinkley 1996).
Tourism dominates the idea about travel indicating that most travelers are tourists who have other agendas apart from spending their vacations. Countries should discourage the issue of travelling writing in order to allow more people to visit their tourist attraction centers. At some instances, tourist guides should discourage people from taking photographs and recording videos of some important features. Even though some writers play a part in advertising their country, it is recommended that this happens in a genuine manner. The increased growth in the number of travelling writers in China reduces the fun of travelling. Moreover, writers have developed ways of hiding their lies by writing more interesting stories that seem real, but in actual sence they are fictions. People always wait and purchase stories and video tapes representing certain features instead of travelling and seeing for themselves.
Works cited
David E. Pollard. The Chinese Essay, London: Hurst & Company, 2000.
Denton, K. Modern Chinese Literary Though: Writings on Literature, 1893-1945. California:
Stanford University Press. 1996
Martin, H. and Kinkley, C. J. Modern Chinese Writers: Self-Portrayals. M.E. Sharpe, 1992
Yuchun, L. The Priceless Moments of a Spring Morn: Idle thoughts of an idle fellow, 1932.
