一般而言，國族的建構有其明顯的空間面向。國族認同通常都與一塊邊界明確的地理疆域緊密相聯，國族成員也是藉由對此國族疆域的分享，而相互凝聚為一整體。本文便是透過對1930年代大量西北旅行書寫的文本分析，探討近代中國國族疆域的想像過程。
1930年代，中國面臨外敵交侵的深重危機，開發西北、鞏固邊防的呼聲應運而生。許多來自內地大都會的知識分子，便是在「救亡圖存」的國族主義意識形態激勵下，深入中國西北地區考察遊歷。這些旅行者，利用一套「自然國族化」的領域性技藝，把西北這塊長期位於華夏世界之邊緣，族群、文化極其繁複多樣的廣大地域，形塑成為中國國族「地理體」的重要組成部分。在他們所書寫的旅行記述中，西北地區一方面被表述為中華民族發祥起源，孕育中國國族獨特精神與本真價值的「家園」；同時，西北地區的特殊地景也被納入一套國族化的歷史敘述，被再現為銘刻著國族記憶的「神話地景」。經由這樣的論述策略，西北遂從一塊物質性的地理空間，轉化而為中國國族成員共同感情與集體認同所寄寓的象徵空間。
不過，西北地區國族疆域化的過程，同時卻也是一個內部殖民的過程。在以漢族知識分子為主體的旅行書寫中，西北地區的異質人群與文化，雖然被整編納入一個同質、連續的國族共同體之內，卻又只能是國族教化、規訓的客體。1930年代西北旅行書寫所想像出的中國國族，究其實質，依然只是一個披著國族外衣的帝國。

It is widely recognized that, in the process of constructing a nation, a specific area of geographic space must be transformed into a clearly-bounded and closely-guarded “homeland” that constitutes the inalienable common property of the national community, and with which every member of the nation identifies wholeheartedly. This article uses travel writings on northwest China to undertake a preliminary inquiry on how this important process unfolded during the 1930s.
The texts discussed in this article were composed at a time when China was facing a serious national crisis due to the threat of Japanese imperialism. Stimulated by nationalistic sentiments, many urban Han Chinese intellectuals trekked to China’s northwestern frontier in order to “develop the northwestern region and bolster national defense.” Their published travel writings depict this region as an indivisible component of the Chinese “geo-body” through the discursive strategy known as “nationalization of nature.” The northwestern region was thus represented as the holy place of the origin of the Chinese nation, while its landscape was re-inscribed into the nation’s history as a mythscape embodying its people’s collective memories. With the help of this “technology of territoriality,” the Han Chinese intellectual-travelers devoted themselves to the task of transforming the spacious land of the northwestern region into a “symbolic space” for the Chinese nation.
However, to the diverse ethnic minorities that inhabited in this region, the national territorialization of their native lands effectively constituted a process of internal cultural colonization. Under the gaze of the metropolitan Han Chinese intellectual－travelers, they were incorporated into the imagined community of the Chinese nation, only to be subjected as objects of discipline and domestication for the greater nationalist project. Thus, the nation imagined through travel writing by Chinese intellectuals in the 1930s was nothing less than an empire disguised as a nation.