Nei Mari del Sud. Il viaggio nel Sud-Est Asiatico tra realtà ed immaginazione: storiografia e letteratura nella Cina Ming e Qing

What kind of images of South-East Asia does late imperial China preserve and hand down? And what relationship can exist between the meager descriptions of the very serious historiographical sources and vivid narratives of literary texts? This essay attempts to provide answers to these questions by presenting an impressive body of new Chinese texts, while stimulating reflection on the more general and no less fascinating relationship between history and literature.