What Is China? : Territory, Ethnicity, Culture, and History / Ge Zhaoguang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zhaoguang, Ge, author.

Contributor:

Hill, Michael (Michael Gibbs), translator.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

National characteristics, Chinese.

Chinese--Attitudes.

Chinese.

China--History.

China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (205 pages)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Ge Zhaoguang, an eminent historian of traditional China and a public intellectual, takes on fundamental questions that shape the domestic and international politics of the world's most populous country and its second largest economy. What Is China? offers an insider's account that addresses sensitive problems of Chinese identity and shows how modern scholarship about China-whether conducted in China, East Asia, or the West-has attempted to make sense of the country's shifting territorial boundaries and its diversity of ethnic groups and cultures. Ge considers, for example, the ancient concept of tianxia, or All-Under-Heaven, which assigned supremacy to the imperial court and lesser status to officials, citizens, tributary states, and tribal peoples. Does China's government still operate with a belief in divine rule of All-Under-Heaven, or has it taken a different view of other actors, inside and outside its current borders? Responding both to Western theories of the nation-state and to Chinese intellectuals eager to promote "national learning," Ge offers an insightful and erudite account of how China sees its place in the world. As he wrestles with complex historical and cultural forces guiding the inner workings of an often misunderstood nation, Ge also teases out many nuances of China's encounter with the contemporary world, using China's past to explain aspects of its present and to provide insight into various paths the nation might follow as the twenty-first century unfolds.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Translator's Introduction

Introduction: On the Historical Formation of "China" and the Dilemma of Chinese Identity

Worldviews: From "All-Under-Heaven" in Ancient China to the "Myriad States" in the Modern World

Borders: On "Chinese" Territory

Ethnicity: Including the "Four Barbarians" in "China"?

History: Chinese Culture from a Long-Term Perspective

Peripheries: How China, Korea, and Japan Have Understood One Another since the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Practical Questions: Will Cultural Differences between China and the West Lead to Conflict?

Afterword

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 20. Sep 2019)

ISBN:

9780674984981

0674984986

9780674985001

0674985001

OCLC:

1028731466