{"product_id":"the-idea-of-china-a-contested-history-9780674976795","title":"The Idea of China: A Contested History","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn acclaimed historian's bold response to two simple, yet vexed, questions: What counts as China, and who counts as Chinese?\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eChina became a capitalist superpower by investing in globalization. Now that it has established its credentials--and emerged as a major US competitor--its leaders are looking within, focused on suppressing dissent and fostering cohesion. The result has been an increasingly nationalist cultural agenda, celebrating a Chinese identity steeped in the mystique of the Middle Kingdom and nostalgia for heroic twentieth-century resistance. Yet Chinese nationalism, like nationalism everywhere, is fraught. Few Westerners, and even fewer Chinese, recognize that the very idea of China is up for grabs. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this sweeping history, Xu Guoqi explores the transnational construction of Chineseness. \u003ci\u003eThe Idea of China\u003c\/i\u003e describes an identity constantly under renovation. Through dialogue and confrontation with neighbors, more distant outsiders, and Chinese speakers and writers within the state, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the diaspora, the idea of China has been reshaped repeatedly across time. Even bedrock cultural formations like Confucianism have been reimported to China after their translation in Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and elsewhere. The idea of China has always been and remains a continuing process, invented, subverted, and reinvented to serve the shifting needs of kings and bureaucrats, industrialists and intellectuals, allies and adversaries. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eXu's chronicle is as provocative as it is rigorous, and his conclusion could hardly be starker: China, fundamentally, is constituted by a shared history. To accept this is to begin moving past the heated great-power rivalries that threaten international peace and stability today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Guoqi Xu\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Harvard University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/24\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.30w x 1.20d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780674976795\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/01\/2026 pg. 68\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eXu, Guoqi:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Xu Guoqi is David H. Y. Chang Professor of History and founding director of the Institute of Transnational History of China at the University of Hong Kong. He has written many books, including \u003ci\u003eAsia and the Great War, Chinese and Americans, Strangers on the Western Front, China and the Great War, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eOlympic Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Guoqi Xu \/ Hardcover \/ English","offer_id":47809138622621,"sku":"9780674976795","price":65.63,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/files\/img_382dd0cb-dd74-4fd6-901d-906569c18c6d.jpg?v=1775557206","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/the-idea-of-china-a-contested-history-9780674976795","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}