The teleology of the modern nation-state : Japan and China / edited by Joshua A. Fogel.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Fogel, Joshua A., 1950-

Series:

Encounters with Asia

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nation-state--Case studies.

Nation-state.

Local history.

Historiography.

Regionalism--Political aspects.

History.

Regionalism.

Politics and culture.

Group identity.

Japan--Politics and government.

Japan.

Politics and government.

China--Politics and government.

China.

Group identity--Japan--History.

Group identity--China--History.

Politics and culture--Japan--History.

Regionalism--Political aspects--China--History.

China--History, Local--Historiography.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

vi, 243 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2004]

Summary:

Japan and China did not begin to emerge as unified political entities until the nineteenth century. Yet scholars and politicians persistently refer to "Japan" and "China" in discussions of earlier periods, as if the modern nation-state had long been established in these regions. Joshua A. Fogel here brings together essays by eight renowned East Asian scholars to demonstrate why this oversight distorts our historical analysis and understanding of both countries. The nation-states of Japan and China developed much later and, indeed, far less uniformly than usually conveyed in popular culture and political discourse. Moreover, the false depiction of an earlier national identity not only alters the factual record; it serves the contemporary engines of nationalist mythology and propaganda.

This interdisciplinary volume asks deceptively simple questions: When did "Japan" and "China" become Japan and China? When and why do inhabitants begin to define their identity and interests nationally rather than locally? Identifying the role of mitigating factors from disease and travel abroad to the subtleties of political language and aesthetic sensibility, the answers provided in these diverse and insightful essays are appropriately complex. By setting aside Western notions of the nationstate, the contributors approach each region on its own terms, while the thematic organization of the book provides a unique lens through which to view the challenges common to understanding both Japan and China. This highly readable collection will be important to scholars both inside and beyond the field of East Asian studies.

Contents:

Introduction: The Teleology of the Nation-State 1

Part 1 The Emergence of a "Japan" and a "China"

1 The Emergence of Aesthetic Japan / Eiko Ikegami 11

2 The North (west)ern Peoples and the Recurrent Origins of the "Chinese" State / Victor Mair 46

Part 2 Bringing the State in

3 State-Making in Global Context: Japan in a World of Nation-States / Mark Ravina 87

4 When Did China Become China? Thoughts on the Twentieth Century / William C. Kirby 105

Part 3 Nationl and Nationality

5 Civilization and Enlightenment: Markers of Identity in Nineteenth-Century Japan / David L. Howell 117

6 Nationality and Difference in China: The Post-Imperial Dilemma / Pamela Kyle Crossley 138

Part 4 Locale, Nation, Empire

7 Cultivating Non-National Understandings in Local History / Luke S. Roberts 161

8 Where Do Incorrect Political Ideas Come From? Writing the History of the Qing Empire and the Chinese Nation / Peter C. Perdue 174.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [201]-229) and index.

ISBN:

0812238206

OCLC:

55518293