Review
“In der historischen Forschung zum Thema Rassismus spielte Ostasien bisher kaum eine Rolle. Der vorliegende Band, Ergebnis eines mehrjährigen, von der German- Israeli-Foundation geförderten Projektes, schließt diese Forschungslücke … Insgesamt ist der Band ausgezeichnet ediert und gut lesbar und wird zweifellos bis auf Weiteres das Standard- werk zum Thema Rasse in Ostasien bleiben. Wer an der historischen Entwicklung des Rassebegriffs interessiert ist und einen Blick über den europäischen Rahmen hinaus werfen möchte, dem sei dieser Band wärmstens empfohlen.” [“Within the historical research on the topic of racism, East Asia has barely played any role. This volume, the outcome of a multi-year project closes this research lacuna … Overall, the volume is superbly edited and easy to read and will undoubtedly remain, until further notice, the standard work on the subject of race in East Asia. For those interested in the historical development of the concept of race and wish to go beyond the European framework, this volume is highly recommended.”] – Prof. Sven Saaler, in: Historische Zeitschrift 299 (2014), pp. 140-141
“…its real strong point is its variety, with papers probing such interesting and understudied topics as the East in Russian modernism, Korea in
European travel writing, utopian multiracial notions in nineteenth-century China, and the complexities of race in the Japanese colonial empire before WWII … the essays themselves are uniformly excellent and tend to provide information not otherwise accessible to Anglophone readers. The scholarly summaries are very accomplished and provide a wealth of material for understanding that race is neither a fixed nor an atemporal construct, nor is it one that can be simply transferred from Western contexts onto Eastern ones.” – Michael Keevak, in: Asian Ethnicity 15/4 (2014), pp. 584-585 [DOI: 10.1080/14631369.2014.939338]
From the Back Cover
“Race and Racism in Modern East Asia” juxtaposes Western racial constructions of East Asians with constructions of race and their outcomes in modern East Asia. It is the first endeavor to explicitly and coherently link constructions of race and racism in both regions. These constructions have not only played a decisive role in shaping the relations between the West and East Asia since the mid nineteenth century, but also exert substantial influence on current relations and mutual images in both the East-West nexus and East Asia. Written by some of the field’s leading authorities, this groundbreaking 21-chapter volume offers an analysis of these constructions, their evolution and their interrelations.
About the Author
Rotem Kowner, Professor of Japanese history and culture at the University of Haifa, Israel. His research has focused on the social and racial nexus between Japan and the West since the sixteenth century as well as on wartime behavior and attitudes in modern Japan.
Walter Demel, Professor of early modern history at the University of the Armed Forces Munich, Germany. He has mainly published on the Bavarian and German politics of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, on the history of the European nobility, and on the relations between Europe and East Asia, particularly the perceptions of China and Japan.
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