The Mediterranean Island of Malta and Its Names in Chinese Sources

This chapter aims to examine Chinese knowledge and narratives about Malta over the centuries, providing a general overview of Chinese sources citing and/or describing this island, to reconstruct a historical panorama concerning the knowledge of the island of Malta in China. To this end, the research focuses on written texts, beginning with Chinese geographical sources, followed by travel literature from the Ming-Qing period before 1866. This chapter opens with a brief discussion of the Mediterranean Sea in ancient Chinese texts, followed by a selection of Ming and Qing sources on Malta, presenting it as a land that embodies the concepts of interculturalism and transculturality. Virtually absent from Chinese sources for centuries, descriptions of Malta from both geographical works and travel accounts up to the first half of the 19th century provide an idyllic depiction of a fertile land inhabited by industrious, generous, brave, and contented people.