The Sage Handbook of Interpreting Chinese History
About this ebook
China′s growing global influence has led to increased interest in its historical perspectives. Understanding contemporary Chinese conceptions of international politics and intercultural relations requires a deep dive into how history is interpreted and taught in China. This handbook aims to "look under the hood" at the motivations and methods behind historical storytelling, the role of historical knowledge in social and political stability, and the deployment of key terms and images in politics and social life.
The handbook is organized into several key sections. The first section provides an overview of key ideas such as the "tributary system" and constitutionalism, alongside critical analyses of intellectual history and Sino-foreign relations. The subsequent sections delve into how history was written and historical narratives disseminated and deployed in four different eras of modern Chinese history: the late-Qing period, the Republican era, the Maoist era, and the Reform era. Each era is examined through the lens of official and popular history, exploring the relationship between history and memory. The final section introduces perspectives on historical narratives from Chinese border regions, as well as Sinophone narratives produced outside the PRC state system, highlighting the diversity of views on Chinese history.
The Sage Handbook of Interpreting Chinese History is an essential resource for scholars, practitioners, and students seeking to understand the complexities of historical interpretation in modern China. It provides a comprehensive and nuanced exploration of the field, equipping readers to engage with the theoretical and practical aspects of Chinese historical narratives.
Part I: Overviews and Framing Chapters
Part II: History in the Late-Qing Era
Part III: History in the Republican Era
Part IV: History in the Maoist Era
Part V: History in the Reform Era
Part VI: Border Histories
About the author
Kristin Stapleton has written two books on the transformation of Chinese cities in the 20th century, one focusing on the adoption of Western-style institutions such as professional police and municipal governments, and one that examines how writer Ba Jin’s “Family,” one of China’s most famous 20th-century novels, represented city life.The influence of fiction and film on perceptions of Chinese history in China and the United States is one of her interests. She is a fellow in the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.Stapleton’s research also examines the history of Chinese city life in the 1950s, when China was allied with the Soviet Union.
Dr Xin Fan teaches at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge. He is a fellow at Lucy Cavendish College. He is the author of "World History and National Identity in China: The Twentieth Century" (CUP, 2021), of "Global History in China" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), and the second editor of "Receptions of Greek and Roman Antiquity in East Asia" (Brill, 2018).
Els van Dongen received her Ph.D. from the Department of Chinese Studies, Leiden University (the Netherlands). She obtained her M.A. and B.A. degrees from the Department of Chinese Studies, University of Leuven (Belgium), and a post-graduate degree in International Relations from the Department of Political Science, University of Leuven. Prior to joining NTU, she also studied and conducted research in China (Central China Normal University and Peking University), and the USA (Boston University). She completed her Ph.D. with the support of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Fulbright Foundation.Els specializes in the study of modern and contemporary China from global and interdisciplinary perspectives. Her research broadly covers two main areas, namely Chinese intellectual history and knowledge circulation and Chinese migration and diaspora. Both areas are connected in that they reflect her core concern of how the transnational movement of people, ideas, and institutions has informed the making of modern and contemporary China. Methodologically, she combines textual analysis of a broad range of Chinese primary sources with interdisciplinary, regional, global, and comparative approaches developed from her training in Chinese Studies, history and International Relations.
