Historical Narratives of East Asia in the 21st Century: Overcoming the Politics of National Identity (Routledge Contemporary Asia Series)

In the twenty-first century, East Asia has been increasingly marked both by tensions at a government level and a chauvinistic mood among the polity. While China’s rise is in one respect the proximate driver of these changes in tone, it draws on a range of unresolved grievances among the respective historical narratives of Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and the Koreas. These conflicting views of the region’s past are a crucial barrier to its cohesive and stable future. This book brings together East Asian scholars from a range of academic disciplines, including China historians, political historians and political scientists to illuminate the interconnectedness of East Asia and discuss how a shared historical narrative might be constructed. Their contributions are organised into 3 parts focusing respectively on historical narratives of China, historical narratives of East Asia, and reconciling historical narratives. The book will appeal to researcher interested in the historical narratives of international relations in East Asia. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of contributors Preface for English readership Original preface General introduction The history controversy in East Asia in the light of China’s rise to a global power Introduction 1 The emergence of East Asia’s “history problems” 2 Historical perception and “historical narrative” 3 National history and East Asia 4 Toward a common historical narrative in East Asia Conclusion PART I Historical narratives of China 1 History of the Republic of China and “historical narrative” Introduction: “narrating history,” history studies, and modern Chinese history 1 What is modern Chinese history? 2 Modern Chinese history and the Chinese Communist Party’s “revolutionary historical perspective” 3 The emergence of the Republic of China’s historical research and relativized “narrative” Conclusion: a perspective from Japan and studies of Republican Chinese history 2 Historical narratives of “democracy” in Republican China Introduction 1 Democracy” in Republican China 2 The bottleneck for narratives on “democracy” Conclusion: the “democracy” for us 3 The formation of the People’s Republic and the “historical narrative” Introduction: five legitimacies of the political rule by the Chinese Communist Party 1 The “historical narrative” in the CCP’s history: the “historical inevitability” for the establishment of the People’s Republic 2 A proper “historical account” (part one): was the formation of the People’s Republic via the People’s PCC agreed on by public opinion? 3 A proper “historical account” (part two): the acquisition of “legitimacy” by the People’s PCC Conclusion: the “Common Programme” of the People’s PCC and the CCP’s rule 4 “Peaceful coexistence” and “historical narrative” in Chinese diplomacy Introduction 1 Peaceful coexistence from tactics to strategies 2 Toward a détente based on peaceful coexistence 3 The Bandung Conference and peaceful coexistence Conclusion PART II Historical narratives of East Asia 5 The discourse on Asianism in postwar Japan Introduction 1 Postwar Japan and Asia 2 Takeuchi Yoshimi’s view on Asianism 3 Asianism and the transnational turn in international relations theory Conclusion 6 The perception toward China among Japanese communities in Dalian after World War I: a case study of the magazine Manmō Introduction 1 Publishing of Manmō and articles regarding new Japan-China relations 2 Japanese awareness of Chinese and Chinese awareness of Japanese 3 Setbacks in new Japan-China relations and the answer to Chinese nationalism Conclusion 7 Perceptions of atomic bombing in the United States and Japan Introduction 1 Views in the U.S. academic milieu 2 Atomic bombing perceived in the American public sphere 3 Hiroshima perceived in Japan: academic and public views Conclusion 8 Transnational Asia and its changing dynamics at the turn of the twenty-first century Introduction: conceptualizing Transnational Asia 1 Governance and network 2 Network and the state in Transnational Asia Conclusion PART III Toward a generally accepted historical narrative in East Asia 9 Questioning the “empireness” of national history: East Asian history narrated in Korea, China, and Japan Introduction 1 The tradition and publication of East Asian regional history 2 Two epistemological paradigms: the East vs. West dichotomy and the philosophy of self-defense 3 Empire, the dream of becoming an empire, and the making of empires 4 The possibilities and limitations of a self-reflective historiography Conclusion 10 Historical perception in Taiwan and collaborative studies on East Asian history Introduction: the problem with textbooks in the context of the debate over “historical perception” 1 Research undertaken in Taiwan on Japan’s controversy over history textbooks 2 Taiwan’s concern on the cooperative compilation of East Asian history textbooks Conclusion 11 Historical perception in China and collaborative studies on East Asian history Introduction: the problems addressed in this chapter 1 The characteristics and crisis of the Chinese historical perception 2 Perceptions of Sino-Japanese relations and regional relations in East Asia Conclusion Afterword Timeline Index "In the twenty-first century, East Asia has been increasingly marked both by tensions at a government level and a chauvinistic mood among the polity. While China's rise is in one respect the proximate driver of these changes in tone, it draws on a range of unresolved grievances among the respective historical narratives of Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and the Koreas. These conflicting views of the region's past are a crucial barrier to its cohesive and stable future. This book brings together East Asian scholars from a range of academic disciplines, including China historians, political historians and political scientists to illuminate the interconnectedness of East Asia and discuss how a shared historical narrative might be constructed. Their contributions are organised into three parts focusing respectively on historical narratives of China, historical narratives of East Asia, and reconciling historical narratives. The book will appeal to researchers interested in the historical narratives of international relations in East Asia"-- Provided by publisher