The Allure of the Nation: The Cultural and Historical Debates in Late Qing and Republican China (Ideas, History, and Modern China, 11)

Covering half a century, from 1895 to 1945, The Allure of the Nation examines three interlocking aspects of Chinese nationalist modernity: (1) the quest to balance global connectivity and ethnic authenticity; (2) the desire to balance national unity and local autonomy; (3) the drive to balance history's place as a tool of political propaganda and as a weapon used to critique orthodoxy and political suppression. By viewing the nation as a cluster of spatial-temporal relations that link individuals to a territorial state, this book provides a different view of early twentieth-century China where the party-state did not have full control of political and cultural affairs, and alternative political perspectives (such as local self-government and democratic aristocracy) could be freely expressed.-- Provided by Publisher Covering half a century, from 1895 to 1945, this book examines three interlocking aspects of Chinese nationalist modernity: (1) the quest to balance global connectivity and ethnic authenticity; (2) the desire to balance national unity and local autonomy; (3) the drive to balance history’s place as a tool of political propaganda and as a weapon used to critique orthodoxy and political suppression. By viewing the nation as a cluster of spatial-temporal relations that link individuals to a territorial state, this book provides a different view of early twentieth-century China where the party-state did not have full control of political and cultural affairs, and alternative political perspectives (such as local self-government and democratic aristocracy) could be freely expressed Balancing the competing claims in a new global order Educating the Chinese citizens Sino-Babylonianism before and after the Great War A nation of moderation versus a nation of extremes China's cultural and ethnic diversity A new aristocracy of the Chinese Republic Contemporary meanings of the Sui-Tang Period (581-907). In The Allure of the Nation, Tze-ki Hon offers an account of early twentieth-century China where the nation was understood as a cluster of spatial-temporal relations that link individuals to a native place, a social network, and a territorial state