The Politics of Imagining Asia

by Wang Hui, Theodore Huters

In this bold, provocative collection, Wang Hui confronts some of the major issues concerning modern China and the status quo of contemporary Chinese thought.

The book s overarching theme is the possibility of an alternative modernity that does not rely on imported conceptions of Chinese history and its legacy. Wang Hui argues that current models, based largely on Western notions of empire and the nation-state, fail to account for the richness and diversity of pre-modern Chinese historical practice. At the same time, he refrains from offering an exclusively Chinese perspective and placing China in an intellectual ghetto. Navigating terrain on regional language and politics, he draws on China s unique past to expose the inadequacies of European-born standards for assessing modern China s evolution. He takes issue particularly with the way in which nation-state logic has dominated politically charged concerns like Chinese language standardization and The Tibetan Question. His stance is critical and often controversial but he locates hope in the kinds of complex, multifaceted arrangements that defined China and much of Asia for centuries.

"The Politics of Imagining Asia" challenges us not only to re-examine our theories of Asia but to reconsider what Europe means as well. As Theodore Huters writes in his introduction, Wang Hui s concerns extend beyond China and Asia to an ambition to rethink world history as a whole. "

Genres: China

368 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2011

About the author

Wang Hui (Chinese: 汪晖; pinyin: Wāng Huī; born 1959) is a professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Tsinghua University, Beijing. His researches focus on contemporary Chinese literature and intellectual history. He was the executive editor (with Huang Ping) of the influential magazine Dushu (读书, Reading) from May 1996 to July 2007. The US magazine Foreign Policy named him as one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world in May 2008. Wang Hui is the recipient of many awards for his scholarship, and has been Visiting Professor at Harvard, Edinburgh, Bologna (Italy), Stanford, UCLA, Berkeley, and the University of Washington, among others. In March 2010, he appeared as the keynote speaker at the annual meeting for the Association of Asian Scholars.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

thought-provoking! highly recommend this to anyone interested in world history and the question of modernity.

[Jia · Rating 5 out of 5]

chapter 6 Weber and Chinese modernity

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

only read the introduction, "The Politics of Imagining Asia," "The Tibetan Question East and West," and "Okinawa and Two Dramatic Changes to World Order." Very good but foucauldian

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wang Hui’s look at Asia is an amazing perspective for those interested in sociology, history, and post-colonialism. The way he discusses the development of China and Japan as a response to Western ideas of what is “Asian” and how that “other” defined them was enlightening for someone interested in the development and understanding of national identity and (again) post-colonial reactions. The whole book is dominated by China’s responses to Western colonialism, but it’s absolutely fascinating if you enjoy the study of why China (and Asia) are the way they are now.