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This manuscript contains fourteen papers written by Professor Wu Yixiong on the early cultural exchanges between China and the West. According to different research angles, they are divided into four groups. The first group of four articles takes the theme of Westerners coming to China in the late Qing Dynasty and the import of Western learning. The author mainly discusses the stage characteristics of the process of Western learning import. That is, in the early period of the missionaries, they focused more on introducing Western scientific concepts and methods, but in the early 20th century, they paid more attention to spreading Western social sciences. The second group of three articles focuses on Westerners' understanding of China and its background. The author mainly discusses Westerners' observations of China's political system changes and their knowledge construction process on the Taiwan issue. The third group of four articles focuses on Chinese officials and intellectuals who had early contact with Westerners and Western learning. The author examines many details of Lin Zexu, Xu Jishe, Liang Fa, Hong Xiuquan, Rong Hong and others' interactions with Westerners, and unearths some historical materials that have not been fully paid attention to before. The fourth group of three articles focuses on communication media and language tools. The author examines new newspapers and periodicals in Malacca, Macau and other places, and provides a detailed review of their founding background, content, characteristics and other aspects to gain a glimpse of the social conditions at that time. He also takes "Guangzhou English" as the research object, examines its evolution process, and analyzes its impact on the process of modern Sino-Western exchanges.

The research object of this book is the activities of Protestant missionaries on the coast of South China from 1807 to 1851, and the content covers all aspects of this history. The religious activities of the Protestant missionaries, their role in Sino-foreign relations, the medical and educational activities they engaged in, missionaries and the spread of Western learning, missionaries and China studies in the modern West, and many other issues have been specifically and in-depth discussed in this book.