We are particularly interested in proposals that move beyond the framework of a single national tradition and engage in a dialogue between European and Asian sources, though we also welcome case studies focusing on the work of individual authors. We welcome analyses of a wide range of sources, including traditional travel accounts, diaries, memoirs, and personal letters, but with an emphasis on real interactions experienced by the authors. Contributors are encouraged to consider the material dimensions of individual encounters as described in their sources and to reflect on the broader aesthetic and ideological meanings these scenes convey.
Call for Chapters Edited Volume - Encounters in Unexpected Places: Chinese and East-Central European Interactions in Peripheral Spaces, 1700-1949
The proposed volume aims to investigate diverse accounts of encounters between Chinese and East-Central Europeans, focusing on interactions outside the major centres typically associated with intercivilizational exchange.
The volume is based on three premises:
First, scholars of travel writing emphasize that ‘encounters are as essential to travel as place; they shape and define journeys’ (Mee 2014, 3). Even when travellers themselves write generally about “others”, still their knowledge owed a lot to individual encounters. Yet, despite their importance, depictions of individual interpersonal encounters have not been central to studies of travel writing. Therefore, we invite contributions that examine how Chinese and East-Central Europeans described these cross-cultural interactions and the role such representations played in shaping identity discourses.
Second, while there is a substantial body of scholarship on Western European encounters with the non-European world over the past few centuries – a period when European imperialism was the dominant force in world history – recent years have seen growing interest in studying intercivilizational contacts from a different perspective, namely, by focusing on actors from regions commonly regarded as peripheral. Therefore, we aim to take a closer look at encounters between Chinese and East-Central Europeans. Recent publications have explored this field and may serve as inspiration (Křížová and Malečková 2022; Huigen and Kołodziejczyk 2023; Kałczewiak and Kozłowska 2022; Mrázek 2024), though there is still much to explore.
Third, to investigate the topic of peripherality more deeply, we seek to focus on encounters taking place outside well-known cosmopolitan centres like Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, or New York – places traditionally seen as melting pots – and instead shift our attention to small towns, remote villages, country roads, and other locations less commonly associated with multicultural exchange.
We are particularly interested in proposals that move beyond the framework of a single national tradition and engage in a dialogue between European and Asian sources, though we also welcome case studies focusing on the work of individual authors. We welcome analyses of a wide range of sources, including traditional travel accounts, diaries, memoirs, and personal letters, but with an emphasis on real interactions experienced by the authors. Contributors are encouraged to consider the material dimensions of individual encounters as described in their sources and to reflect on the broader aesthetic and ideological meanings these scenes convey. The following questions may serve as a guiding framework: How did authors’ backgrounds influence their encounters and the meanings they ascribed to them? How did the context of the interaction shape the encounter? How did authors navigate cultural differences in diverse realities? How did descriptions of the people they met contribute to the construction of their own identities? What rhetorical devices were used to describe cross-cultural interactions? How often did they achieve genuine understanding, and how?
Practical information
The volume is planned for Anthem Studies in Encounters between Peripheral Region series. Please submit a short abstract (about 300-400 words) with a short biographical note in English by 31 August 2025 to the editorial team at tewert@shisu.edu.cn and tewert@amu.edu.pl. The editors of the publication will reply with any comments on the proposed topics and guidelines for the preparation of articles within two months. The planned deadline for full article submissions is April 2026.
Quoted literature
Huigen, Siegfried, and Dorota Kołodziejczyk. 2023. East Central Europe Between the Colonial and the Postcolonial in the Twentieth Century. Edited by Siegfried Huigen and Dorota Kołodziejczyk. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kałczewiak, Mariusz, and Magdalena Kozłowska, eds. 2022. The World beyond the West. Perspectives from Eastern Europe. New York: Berghahn.
Křížová, Markéta, and Jitka Malečková, eds. 2022. Central Europe and the Non-European World in the Long 19th Century. Berlin: Frank & Timme.
Mee, Catherine. 2014. Interpersonal Encounters in Contemporary Travel Writing: French and Italian Perspectives. London: Anthem Press.
Mrázek, Jan, ed. 2024. Escaping Kakania: Eastern European Travels in Colonial Southeast Asia. Vienna: Central European University Press.