Writing the world from the late Qing empire: gendered travel, knowledge, and reform in the work of Shan Shili and Qian Xun

This article reinterprets late Qing reform through the diplomatic travel writings of Qian Xun and Shan Shili, a married couple whose collaborative authorship articulated a culturally rooted yet globally informed vision of change. Introducing the concept of re-gendered companionship, it examines how literati couples mobilised shared authority, gendered perspective, and embodied experience to produce and circulate reformist knowledge. By analysing their complementary writings, including diplomatic reports, encyclopaedic entries, and travel narratives, the study shows how travel, education, and gendered agency became instruments of selective adaptation of foreign institutions. Japan functioned as a critical intermediary, mediating Western practices for Chinese audiences while shaping gendered observation and reflection. This framework challenges narratives that isolate male or female agency and reframes elite travel writing as a form of intellectual activism. Their coordinated authorship bridges literati traditions of companionship and emerging bureaucratic genres, situating reform in relational, cross-cultural, and gendered terms.