The Invention of China
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- Synopsis
- A provocative account showing that &“China&”—and its 5,000 years of unified history—is a national myth, created only a century ago with a political agenda that persists to this day China&’s current leadership lays claim to a 5,000-year-old civilization, but &“China&” as a unified country and people, Bill Hayton argues, was created far more recently by a small group of intellectuals. In this compelling account, Hayton shows how China&’s present-day geopolitical problems—the fates of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, and the South China Sea—were born in the struggle to create a modern nation-state. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reformers and revolutionaries adopted foreign ideas to &“invent&’ a new vision of China. By asserting a particular, politicized version of the past the government bolstered its claim to a vast territory stretching from the Pacific to Central Asia. Ranging across history, nationhood, language, and territory, Hayton shows how the Republic&’s reworking of its past not only helped it to justify its right to rule a century ago—but continues to motivate and direct policy today.
- Copyright:
- 2020
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- Book Size:
- 320 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9780300256062
- Related ISBNs:
- 9780300234824
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- Date of Addition:
- 12/21/20
- Copyrighted By:
- Bill Hayton
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- History, Nonfiction
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Staff
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.