Wow! eBook
Borders of Chinese Civilization: Geography and History at Empire's End
Author(s): Douglas Howland (Author)
- Publisher: Duke University Press
- Publication Date: April 25, 1996
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 352 pages
- ISBN-10: 0822317729
- ISBN-13: 9780822317722
Book Description
D. R. Howland explores China’s representations of Japan in the changing world of the late nineteenth century and, in so doing, examines the cultural and social borders between the two neighbors. Looking at Chinese accounts of Japan written during the 1870s and 1880s, he undertakes an unprecedented analysis of the main genres the Chinese used to portray Japan—the travel diary, poetry, and the geographical treatise. In his discussion of the practice of “brushtalk,” in which Chinese scholars communicated with the Japanese by exchanging ideographs, Howland further shows how the Chinese viewed the communication of their language and its dominant modes—history and poetry—as the textual and cultural basis of a shared civilization between the two societies.
With Japan’s decision in the 1870s to modernize and westernize, China’s relationship with Japan underwent a crucial change—one that resulted in its decisive separation from Chinese civilization and, according to Howland, a destabilization of China’s worldview. His examination of the ways in which Chinese perceptions of Japan altered in the 1880s reveals the crucial choice faced by the Chinese of whether to interact with Japan as “kin,” based on geographical proximity and the existence of common cultural threads, or as a “barbarian,” an alien force molded by European influence.
By probing China’s poetic and expository modes of portraying Japan, Borders of Chinese Civilization exposes the changing world of the nineteenth century and China’s comprehension of it. This broadly appealing work will engage scholars in the fields of Asian studies, Chinese literature, history, and geography, as well as those interested in theoretical reflections on travel or modernism.
With Japan’s decision in the 1870s to modernize and westernize, China’s relationship with Japan underwent a crucial change—one that resulted in its decisive separation from Chinese civilization and, according to Howland, a destabilization of China’s worldview. His examination of the ways in which Chinese perceptions of Japan altered in the 1880s reveals the crucial choice faced by the Chinese of whether to interact with Japan as “kin,” based on geographical proximity and the existence of common cultural threads, or as a “barbarian,” an alien force molded by European influence.
By probing China’s poetic and expository modes of portraying Japan, Borders of Chinese Civilization exposes the changing world of the nineteenth century and China’s comprehension of it. This broadly appealing work will engage scholars in the fields of Asian studies, Chinese literature, history, and geography, as well as those interested in theoretical reflections on travel or modernism.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“”Borders of Chinese Civilization” succeeds admirably in its primary task of constructing the dynamics of a critical moment in the history of China’s laborious march toward the twentieth century. By making well-considered use of contemporary theoretical strategies and by examining a variety of non-traditional source materials, Howland has brought fresh insight into a complex problem.”
–T. C. Russell,” Journal of Contemporary Asia”
–T. C. Russell,” Journal of Contemporary Asia”
“Howland’s cross-cultural studies approach to the study of China’s worldview and images of Japan in the 1870s and 1880s offers a fresh insight into the decline of China’s civilization over time. It definitely contributes to our understanding of how Japan changed the Chinese view of themselves and of others. . . . A splendid book.”
–Colin Mackerras, “Pacific Affairs”
About the Author
D. R. Howland is Associate Professor of History at DePaul University.
