Post-chineseness: Cultural Politics and International Relations (Suny Series, James N. Rosenau Series in Global Politics)

There have been few efforts to overcome the binary of China versus the West. The recent global political environment, with a deepening confrontation between China and the West, strengthens this binary image. Post-Chineseness boldly challenges the essentialized notion of Chineseness in existing scholarship through the revelation of the multiplicity and complexity of the uses of Chineseness by strategically conceived insiders, outsiders, and those in-between. Combining the fields of international relations, cultural politics, and intellectual history, Chih-yu Shih investigates how the global audience perceives (and essentializes) Chineseness. Shih engages with major Chinese international relations theories, investigates the works of sinologists in Hong Kong, Singapore, Pakistan, Taiwan, Vietnam, and other academics in East Asia, and explores individual scholars' life stories and academic careers to delineate how Chineseness is constantly negotiated and reproduced. Shih's theory of the "balance of relationships" expands the concept of Chineseness and effectively challenges existing theories of realism, liberalism, and conventional constructivism in international relations. The highly original delineation of multiple layers and diverse dimensions of "Chineseness" opens an intellectual channel between the social sciences and humanities in China studies. Contents 6 List of Illustrations 8 Acknowledgments 10 Introduction: An Inescapable Agenda of Post-Chineseness 12 Background 12 From Chineseness to Post-Chineseness 14 Traces of Post-Chineseness in the Literature 16 Post-Chinese International Relations 17 The Chinese School of International Relations 17 Relational School of International Relations 17 The Post-Western Agenda 18 Post-Chinese Ethnicity 18 Post-Chinese China Studies 19 Unconventional and Composite Methodology 20 Post-Western Approach 21 Relational Lenses 22 Intellectual History 23 Structure of the Arguments and Cases 23 Formatting the Narratives 23 Snapshots of the Chapters 25 Part 1 Decentralizing Chineseness: Relations from the Inside Out 28 1 Away from China-centrism: Balance of Relationships 30 Self-centrism and Chineseness of Strangers 30 Balance of Relationships and Bilateral IR 33 Post-Chineseness as Relationality 39 Post-Chineseness and the Balance of Relationships 43 Post-Chinese Strategies 44 Moral Chineseness and BoR 44 Hybrid Chineseness and BoR 45 Exotic Chineseness and BoR 45 Equal Chineseness and BoR 46 Borderline Chineseness and BoR 46 Utility Chineseness 47 Post-Chinese Affects 47 Conclusion 49 2 Into the Iron Brotherhood: Relational Epistemology 50 Theoretical Significance of the Sino-Pakistani Relationship 50 Into the Iron Relationship of the CPEC 52 Relational IR, Chinese Friendship, and the Bilateral Identity 57 Post-Chineseness against the Odds 60 Embedded Relationality 60 The Rationale of a Post-Chineseness Agenda 62 A Note on Post-Pakistaniness 66 Relationality Informed by Post-Chineseness 67 Formation of Experiential Chineseness 69 Conclusion: Implications for International Relations Theory 70 3 Up from Subaltern Identities: Strategic Nonessentialism 74 Colonial International Relations and Taiwan 74 (Re)theorizing Decolonization via the Relational Discourse 76 “Can the Subaltern Speak?”2 77 Discourse as Power Reconsidered 78 Discourse as Relation 79 Yadong as Relational Discourse in Sun Yatsen’s Narratives 82 Yadong as a Relation 83 Sun Yatsen’s Yadong and East Asia 84 Taiwan’s Lost Opportunity for Decolonization during the Cold War 87 Taiwan’s Postcolonial Discourse 88 Cold War Intervention in Taiwan’s Decolonization 90 Conclusion 93 4 Beyond Fundamentalist Faith: Cultural Nationalism 94 Cultural Nationalism as the Purpose of Post-Chineseness 96 Cultural Chineseness in a Multireligious State 97 Political Chineseness in a Multireligious State 98 Cosmopolitan Chineseness in a Multireligious State 99 Postmodern Chineseness in a Multireligious State 100 Post-Chinese Buddhism 101 Cultural Chineseness and Buddhism 102 Political Chineseness and Buddhism 102 Cosmopolitan Chineseness and Buddhism 103 Postmodern Chineseness and Buddhism 104 Post-Chinese Christianity 104 Cultural Chineseness and Christianity 105 Political Chineseness and Christianity 106 Cosmopolitan Chineseness and Christianity 106 Postmodern Chineseness and Christianity 107 Post-Chinese Confucianism 107 Cultural Chineseness and Confucianism 108 Political Chineseness and Confucianism 109 Cosmopolitan Chineseness and Confucianism 109 Postmodern Chineseness and Confucianism 110 Conclusion 110 Part 2 Strategizing Chineseness: Relations from the Outside In 112 5 Cultural Self Rebalanced: The Vietnamese Practices of Sinology 114 Introduction 114 Looking at China’s Post-Chineseness 116 Post-Chineseness as Intellectual Practices 119 Altercasting Embedded in Post-Chineseness 120 Memory versus Resource in Role Identity 122 Altercasting and Vietnam’s Practices of Post-Chineseness 124 Altercasting and Civilizational Chineseness 125 Altercasting and Scientific Chineseness 127 Altercasting and Sinological Chineseness 128 Reflective Altercasting and Ethnic Chineseness 130 Reflective Altercasting and Experiential Chineseness 131 Reflective Altercasting and Cultural Chineseness 133 Policy Implications 134 6 Colonial Cleavages: Japanese Legacies in Taiwan’s Views on China 138 Introduction 138 Colonial Relationality of Modernity and War 139 Up from Colony 139 Post-Chinese Possibilities Embedded in Colonial Relationality 143 Six Illustrative Stories of Colonial Relationality 146 Hsu Chie-lin’s Practices of Cultural Chineseness 146 Yeh Chi-cheng’s Practices of Sinological Chineseness 147 Shih Ming’s Practices of Civilizational Chineseness 149 Chen Peng-jen’s Practices of Experiential Chineseness 150 Shih Che-hsiung’s Practices of Ethnic Chineseness 151 Parris Hsu-cheng Chang’s Practices of Scientific/Policy Chineseness6 153 Conclusion 154 7 Ethnic Role-Making: China Watchers in the Philippines 156 Introduction 156 A Role Analysis of Post-Chineseness in the Philippine Context 157 Theoretical Propositions of Post-Chinese Agency 161 Epistemological Shifts Illustrated 166 Proposition 1.1: In-Group Chineseness Moves toward Out-Group Chineseness in the Long Run 166 Proposition 1.2: Out-Group Chineseness Does Not Move toward In-Group Chineseness 168 Proposition 2: Sinological Chineseness Is Stable 170 Proposition 3: Ethnic Chineseness Is Unstable 174 Allusion to a Comparative Agenda 176 8 Geopolitical Distancing: Think Tanks in Southern Neighborhood 180 Civilizational Bridges qua Former Colonies 181 Four Possible Roles of a Bridge State 182 Role Identities of Nepal and Bangladesh 186 China Watching in South Asian Bridging States 188 Singapore’s Role-Making and China Watching 191 Chinese Legacy Denied a Bridge Role 195 Crafting Objectivism at EAI 196 Conclusion 199 Part 3 Belonging to Chineseness: Relations from the In-between 202 9 Me Inside and Outside: Performing for Hong Kong and Singapore 204 Prescribing Post-Chineseness for the Community 204 Chineseness and Cross-cultural Representations 206 Kuo Pao-kun’s Quest for Cultural Subjectivity 212 Kuo Pao-kun’s Unspeakable Methodology 214 Denny Yung and His Moving-Body Technique 217 Conclusion 220 10 Sticking My Head Out under the Sky: A Presbyterian for Taiwan Independence 222 Introduction 222 Taiwan’s Approach to China Embedded in Colonial Relations 224 Church Relations versus Colonial Relations 227 The Rise of Contextual Theology 229 Approaching China from the Perspective of Contextual Theology 232 Conclusion 235 11 China Watch for No One: Relating Taiwan and China in Hong Kong? 238 The Hong Kong Platform 238 Position and Purpose in Hong Kong’s China Watching 239 Between the Inside and the Outside 243 Liao Kuang-sheng 243 Peter Nan-hsiung Lee 246 Byron Song-jan Weng 248 A Comparison of Taiwanese Intellectuals in Hong Kong 251 The Insiders and Their Cultural Chineseness 251 New Asia Scholars and Normative China 251 Szeto Wah and Authentic China 252 Danny Yung and Practical China 252 The Outsiders and Their Civilizational Chineseness 253 Chinese News Analysis (CNA) and Christian Sinology 253 Michael Bond and Cross-cultural Chinese Psychology 253 David Zweig and Internationalizing China 254 Conclusion 255 12 Post-Western Politics and Mainlandization: Between Colonialism and Liberalism 258 Silenced by Nationalism and Liberalism 258 The Irony of 2015, or Any Year 261 The Caveats of Post-Western Politics 265 Post-(Western-)Chineseness 269 Implausible Chinese, Post-Western, or Western 273 Conclusion: Post-Chineseness and Mainlandization 276 In Lieu of a Conclusion: Noninternational Relations, Nonidentities 280 Appendix. Post-Asia and IR Research: A Pervasive Agenda 284 How Universal Is Non-Western? 284 Asia as Unfulfilled Epistemology 285 Being Critical also for the West 286 Four Illustrative Agendas for Future Prospects 287 Cyclical Temporality and Post-Western International Relations 287 Worlding the West and Global IR 288 Ontological Escape and National Schools of IR 289 Post-Asianness and the Relational Turns 290 An Ethical Note 291 Notes 294 Index 350