China and the West

James Fenimore Cooper and China : general
Zhang Aiping : Cooper's picturesque description of American landscape and realistic characterization of American frontiersmen instantly turned him into a popular American writer among Chinese readers and critics as well. Scholarly articles on Cooper have appeared not just in mainstream or specialized journals of the study of American literatury, they can also be found in a variety of non-literary magazines and journals. Common readers know Cooper as the American novelist who wrote extensively and beautifully about adventures in the wilderness, whereas scholars view him as the leader in American Renaissance literature, who established several new genres in American novel writing. In textbooks and scholarly writings, they lauded him as the pioneering figure who helped steer American writings out of the shadow of the British and European traditions and create a nationa literature for America.