Abstract: The dialectical relationship between words and images is an important issue of modern Chinese literary studies. Although the interpretations from the overseas, especially Rey Chow's "technologized visuality," highlight the key position of visuality in the making process of modern Chinese literature, they exaggerate the opposition between words and images, and this exaggeration implies a colonial thinking of technology which sets the relationship between China and the Western as that between the primitive and the modern through its emphasis on Western-ownership of technology. Thus, technology becomes not only a state of matter but also a structure of ideology. If the emphasis lies on only one of the two aspects, the Cold War mentality may be resulted. Only through the promotion of the interaction between the aspects of technology, the tendency of pan-words in the visual studies can only be prevented, and thus the historicized understanding of "China" and "modern" can be achieved.

Key words: technologized visuality, historical experiences, visual modernities, Chinese studies abroad