Rescuing the Empire: Chinese Nation-building in the Twentieth Century
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take modern China's dilemma of how to deal with the legacy of its imperial past as the starting point for a discussion of the drawn-out re-creation of China in the twentieth century.
Abstract: This paper takes modern China's dilemma of how to deal with the legacy of its imperial past as the starting point for a discussion of the drawn-out re-creation of China in the twentieth century. The particular focus is on the important role of non-Han ethnic minorities in this process. It is pointed out that the non-recognition and forced assimilation of all such minorities, in favour of a unified citizenship on an imagined European, American or Japanese model, was actually considered as a serious alternative and favoured by many Chinese nation-builders in the wake of the overthrow of the last imperial dynasty in 1911. The article then proceeds to a discussion of why, on the contrary, ethnic minorities should instead have been formally identified and in some cases even actively organised as official minorities, recognised and incorporated into the state structure, as happened after 1949. Based on the formal and symbolic qualities of the constitution of these minorities, it is argued that new China is also a new formulation of the imperial Chinese model, which resurrects the corollary idea of civilisation as a transformative force that requires a primitive, backward periphery as its object.
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15 Feb 2012TL;DR: Critical Han Studies as mentioned in this paper is a collection of trenchant, penetrating essays interrogating what it means to be "Han" in China, both historically and today, both by examining the social construction of hierarchy and in-group favoritism.
Abstract: Addressing the problem of the ‘Han’ ethnos from a variety of relevant perspectives—historical, geographical, racial, political, literary, anthropological, and linguistic—Critical Han Studies offers a responsible, informative deconstruction of this monumental yet murky category. It is certain to have an enormous impact on the entire field of China studies.” Victor H. Mair, University of Pennsylvania “This deeply historical, multidisciplinary volume consistently and fruitfully employs insights from critical race and whiteness studies in a new arena. In doing so it illuminates brightly how and when ideas about race and ethnicity change in the service of shifting configurations of power.” David Roediger, author of How Race Survived U.S. History “A great book. By examining the social construction of hierarchy in China,Critical Han Studiessheds light on broad issues of cultural dominance and in-group favoritism.” Richard Delgado, author of Critical Race Theory: An Introduction “A powerful, probing account of the idea of the ‘Han Chinese’—that deceptive category which, like ‘American,’ is so often presented as a natural default, even though it really is of recent vintage. . . . A feast for both Sinologists and comparativists everywhere.” Magnus Fiskesjo, Cornell University “This collection of trenchant, penetrating essays interrogates what it means to be ‘Han’ in China, both historically and today. It will make a valuable and enduring contribution to our understanding of the uniqueness and complexity of Chinese history and culture. Dru Gladney, Pomona College Constituting over ninety percent of China's population, Han is not only the largest ethnonational group in that country but also one of the largest categories of human identity in world history. In this pathbreaking volume, a multidisciplinary group of scholars examine this ambiguous identity, one that shares features with, but cannot be subsumed under, existing notions of ethnicity, culture, race, nationality, and civilization. Thomas S. Mullaney is a professor of history at Stanford University. James Leibold is senior lecturer and Asian studies program convenor at La Trobe University. Stephane Gros is a research fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Eric Vanden Bussche is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University. Contributors: Uradyn E. Bulag, Kevin Carrico, Zhihong Chen, Tamara Chin, Mark Elliott, C. Patterson Giersch, James Leibold, Thomas S. Mullaney, Nicholas Tapp, Emma J. Teng, Chris Vasantkumar, and Xu Jieshun Series: New Perspectives on Chinese Culture and Society, vol. 4
114 citations
01 Sep 2016
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper examined the intersection of two critical issues of the contemporary world: Islamic revival and an assertive China, questioning the assumption that Islamic law is incompatible with state law and found that both Hui and the Party-State invoke, interpret, and make arguments based on Islamic law, a minjian (unofficial) law in China, to pursue their respective visions of 'the good'.
Abstract: China and Islam examines the intersection of two critical issues of the contemporary world: Islamic revival and an assertive China, questioning the assumption that Islamic law is incompatible with state law. It finds that both Hui and the Party-State invoke, interpret, and make arguments based on Islamic law, a minjian (unofficial) law in China, to pursue their respective visions of 'the good'. Based on fieldwork in Linxia, 'China's Little Mecca', this study follows Hui clerics, youthful translators on the 'New Silk Road', female educators who reform traditional madrasas, and Party cadres as they reconcile Islamic and socialist laws in the course of the everyday. The first study of Islamic law in China and one of the first ethnographic accounts of law in postsocialist China, China and Islam unsettles unidimensional perceptions of extremist Islam and authoritarian China through Hui minjian practices of law.
55 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the coming to terms with the nation: ethnic classification in modern China, edited by Thomas Mullaney, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, University of California Press, 2011, 232pp., £19.95 (paperback), I...
Abstract: Coming to terms with the nation: ethnic classification in modern China, edited by Thomas Mullaney, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, University of California Press, 2011, 232pp., £19.95 (paperback), I...
47 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that the West is not an outsider to the Tibet question, which is defined primarily in terms of the debate over the status of Tibet vis-a-vis China, and emphasized the world constructing role of contesting representations and challenges the divide between the political and the cultural, the imperial and the imaginative.
Abstract: The protests in and around Tibet in 2008 show that Tibet's status within China remains unsettled. The West is not an outsider to the Tibet question, which is defined primarily in terms of the debate over the status of Tibet vis-a-vis China. Tibet's modern geopolitical identity has been scripted by British imperialism. The changing dynamics of British imperial interests in India affected the emergence of Tibet as a (non)modern geopolitical entity. The most significant aspect of the British imperialist policy practiced in the first half of the twentieth century was the formula of “Chinese suzerainty/Tibetan autonomy.” This strategic hypocrisy, while nurturing an ambiguity in Tibet's status, culminated in the victory of a Western idea of sovereignty. It was China, not Tibet, that found the sovereignty talk most useful. The paper emphasizes the world-constructing role of contesting representations and challenges the divide between the political and the cultural, the imperial and the imaginative.
32 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the development of bronze metallurgy in southwestern China parallels trends observed among Neolithic communities in Southeast Asia, and they propose that sociopolitical complexity emerged as part of a multiregional phenomenon that had its beginning with the formalization of trade networks during the Neolithic period.
Abstract: Archaeology of ancient China’s periphery has traditionally been examined through the historiographic lens of Chinese textual sources. Social developments in the periphery are often explained in relation to accounts of migration from “core” regions of China. Setting conventional paradigms and textual sources aside, this article examines prehistoric developments in southwestern China in conjunction with broader trends in Southeast Asia. This comparative approach reveals that the development of bronze metallurgy in southwestern China parallels trends observed among Neolithic communities in Southeast Asia. Using recent data and a reassessment of radiocarbon dates for the Bronze Age, I propose that sociopolitical complexity emerged in southwestern China as part of a multiregional phenomenon that had its beginning with the formalization of trade networks during the Neolithic period.
30 citations