Though the Mongols came from China’s Inner Asian frontier and thought of themselves proudly as pastoral nomads, with the establishment of the Yuan regime, they became rulers of southern China and continued the Song Dynasty’s relationship with southeast Asia. Among the most vivid texts from that interaction was written by a Yuan official named Zhou Daguan who was dispatched in 1296-7 from the southeastern port city of Wenzhou to Cambodia in order to announce the succession of Temür as emperor. Zhou Daguan then composed a report for the Yuan about Cambodia, one that includes the only first-hand account of the famous city of Angkor. Place this work in the context of ethnographic writing we have discussed this semester. How does Zhou Daguan compare with other accounts of “other” peoples we have seen before, either in the categories he uses or in his aims? Are the Cambodians depicted as “barbarians” in the way we have seen other foreign groups?
