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영어

In 1921, at the age of 29, Akutagawa traveled to China for about 120 days as a correspondent for the ‘Osakamainuchi shinbun’ newspaper. He left Tokyo by train on March 19, got off at Osaka on March 20, recovered from a high fever caused by a cold, left Osaka on March 27, arrived at Moji on March 28, boarded Chikugomaru, and arrived in Shanghai on March 30. It was a rough trip, including high fever before boarding and seasickness that suffered while crossing Hyeonhaetan. “Traveling to Gangnam” left Shanghai on May 2nd, returned to Hangzhou from May 2nd to 5th, departed Shanghai on May 8th, traveled to Suzhou from May 10th, Yangzhou from May 11th to 12th, and Nanjing from 12th to 14th, and returned to Shanghai on the 15th. The “Traveling to Gangnam” covered in this study is a travel journal from May 2 to 14, 1921. The experience gained from a 10-day trip to Gangnam was published in a newspaper series about eight months later. Although it was a series following “Traveling to Shanghai”, unlike expectations of the old scenery of China in the travel book of Gangnam, the appearance of modern China was only disappointing. The difference from “Traveling to Shanghai” is that it was able to experience epic landscapes such as the mysterious stories of Chinese classics. In addition, as quoted below, dissatisfaction with the ‘yankee hobby’ that encroached on modern China and traditional culture seems to have played a major role. The main purpose of this study is the representation and characteristics of modern China of Akutagawa sent to China as a newspaper correspondent, especially the Gangnam periodical, and the difference from the previous “Traveling to Shanghai” and I would like to point out the problem of adding fictional elements to nonfiction's travel. In previous studies at home and abroad, there were many critical views such as Akutagawa's disparagement of modern China, his limitations as an intellectual, and imperial thinking. In the end, it is necessary to confirm the "journalism" of Akutagawa, a correspondent who experienced China's turbulent period, such as the modern Western powers and the invasion of Japanese imperialism, and his hidden aspect as a novelist.