Exploring Nationalisms of China - (Contributions to the Study of World History) by C X George Wei & Xiaoyuan Liu (Hardcover)

About the Book

China is a site for the evolution, not only of Chinese nationalism, but the nationalism of various non-Han ethnic groups. During the 20th century, these ethnic groups constructed and expressed their own identities and nationalism through interaction with one another and with outside influences. This interdisciplinary anthology contains nine original works that pluralize our understanding of nationalism in China by illustrating the various intellectual strains of China's nationalist discourse, the dichotomy between the political authorities' and grass roots' experiences, and the nationalizing efforts by various ethnic and political groups along China's inland and maritime frontiers.

First, contributors explore the controversy surrounding the contested issue of China's national and international identity from pre-modern times to the present. Next, the authors examine China's nationalist encounters with foreign influences such as U.S. Marines in Shandong, Soviet experts in Manchuria, and recent friction between the United States and the PRC. Finally, essays expand beyond the ethnographic regions of the Han-Chinese and the political domain of the PRC to discuss the odyssey of Taiwan's nationalism in both a political and a cultural sense. Many selections are based on newly declassified archival materials.

Book Synopsis

China is a site for the evolution, not only of Chinese nationalism, but the nationalism of various non-Han ethnic groups. During the 20th century, these ethnic groups constructed and expressed their own identities and nationalism through interaction with one another and with outside influences. This interdisciplinary anthology contains nine original works that pluralize our understanding of nationalism in China by illustrating the various intellectual strains of China's nationalist discourse, the dichotomy between the political authorities' and grass roots' experiences, and the nationalizing efforts by various ethnic and political groups along China's inland and maritime frontiers.

First, contributors explore the controversy surrounding the contested issue of China's national and international identity from pre-modern times to the present. Next, the authors examine China's nationalist encounters with foreign influences such as U.S. Marines in Shandong, Soviet experts in Manchuria, and recent friction between the United States and the PRC. Finally, essays expand beyond the ethnographic regions of the Han-Chinese and the political domain of the PRC to discuss the odyssey of Taiwan's nationalism in both a political and a cultural sense. Many selections are based on newly declassified archival materials.

Review Quotes

?[f]ine scholarship that contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex phenomena associated with Chinese nationalism.?-Journal of Chinese Political Science

?Recommended. Faculty and undergraduate and graduate students.?-Choice

"Ýf¨ine scholarship that contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex phenomena associated with Chinese nationalism."-Journal of Chinese Political Science

"Recommended. Faculty and undergraduate and graduate students."-Choice

"[f]ine scholarship that contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex phenomena associated with Chinese nationalism."-Journal of Chinese Political Science

About the Author

C. X. GEORGE WEI is Associate Professor of History at Susquehanna University and guest professor of the Institute of History Research of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. He is co-editor of Chinese Nationalism in Perspective: Historical and Recent Cases (2001), and author of Sino-American Economic Relations, 1944-1949 (1997).

XIAOYUAN LIU is Associate Professor of History at Iowa State University. He is the author of A Partnership for Disorder: China, the United States, and Their Policies for the Postwar Disposition of the Japanese Empire, 1941-1945.