Author: María Montt (2025)
Abstract: This article addresses, through written travel records to China, the construction of knowledge about Asia and China in Chile. Using as a case study Olga Poblete's publication of an essay on Asian history (1933), a travel book to the People's Republic of China (1953), and a book that brings together essays on China's cultural history (1955), this article proposes that travel to China contributed to the elaboration and circulation of historical knowledge about China in Chile. Thus, it explores how the circulation of ideas and actors contributed to the development of Asian studies in Latin America, from the 1930s to the Cold War. Likewise, it proposes that this knowledge contributes to the formation of a historiographical space about Asia, reflecting on the role of travel in knowledge production and cultural diplomacy.
Doi: https://doi.org/10.4013/hist.2025.291.01