本文主要從圖像著手討論18世紀以後西方的中國觀察。18世紀及其之前西方的中國圖像，與中國相距甚遠，後現代主義認為，此時期的中國形象被扭曲，甚至妖魔化。但18世紀以後，西方的中國圖像與前期有極大的差異，因此本文嘗試透過圖像來討論西方中國觀察的變化。 首先，從文本的記載到外銷瓷、外銷畫上的中國圖案，以及18世紀歐洲中國風所發展出的中國象徵符號，討論西方中國想像的形成。 其次，亞歷山大及湯姆遜二者所記錄的中國分別代表18世紀末、19世紀初及19世紀後半的中國，所採用的工具繪畫與攝影正好反映當代圖像記錄工具的變革，因此，透過對亞歷山大及湯姆遜作品的討論，期能理解西方的中國觀察及影響因素。 / This dissertation discusses China observation in the West after the eighteenth century. Before the eighteenth century, images about China in the West were very different from the real China. Post-modernists argue that in that period the images about China were distorted or even demonized. This dissertation tries to explore the changes of understanding of China through examining images about China in the West. First, to discuss the emerging of the imagination of China in Europe, it discusses Western texts about China, the images on the eighteenth-century China porcelain and exported paintings, as well as the symbols of the “Chinoiserie” style. Secondly, it examines the drawings of William Alexander in the late eighteenth century and the photographs of John Thomson in the nineteenth century. Not only do they represent the shift of media of image recording images but also the change of the understanding of China. In the conclusion, it tries to understand the factors that brought about the changes of China observations in the West.