Japan & the invention of Chinese nationalism
An online talk on 10 November 2020 about the importance of Japan in the emergence and shaping of Chinese nationalism in the final decade of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth. I’ll be talking about the work of diplomat Huang Zunxian, journalist Liang Qichao and revolutionaries including Zhang Binglin and Sun […]
The invention of the ‘Han race’
9 November 2020 It is a commonplace to talk about the ‘Han race’ as if it is self-evident fact. In this talk I will explain how the idea of a Han Race was constructed at the beginning of the twentieth century as a political strategy to support the arguments of revolutionary Chinese nationalism. I will […]
‘The invention of the Chinese nation’
An online talk for the Contemporary China Centre at the Victoria University of Wellington. How many nations are there in China? Is there just one or are there many? What does the Chinese word for nation – ‘minzu’ actually mean? In this talk, I will trace the origins of the contemporary problems in Tibet and […]
China, sovereignty & the next world order
An article for The Interpreter, the blog of the Lowy Institute (one of Australia’s best foreign affairs think tanks) looking at how the Chinese leadership’s attitude towards sovereignty gives us some clues about its ideas for reforms of ‘global governance’. I also make some connections between this modern focus on sovereignty and the way that […]