Embracing ’Asia’ in China and Japan: Asianism Discourse and the Contest for Hegemony, 1912–1933

Description

This book examines how Asianism became a key concept in mainstream political discourse between China and Japan and how it was used both domestically and internationally in the contest for political hegemony. It argues that, from the early 1910s to the early 1930s, this contest changed Chinese and Japanese perceptions of ‘Asia’, from a concept that was foreign-referential, foreign-imposed, peripheral, and mostly negative and denied (in Japan) or largely ignored (in China) to one that was self-referential, self-defined, central, and widely affirmed and embraced. As an ism, Asianism elevated ‘Asia’ as a geographical concept with culturalist-racialist implications to the status of a full-blown political principle and encouraged its proposal and discussion vis-à-vis other political doctrines of the time, such as nationalism, internationalism, and imperialism. By the mid-1920s, a great variety of conceptions of Asianism had emerged in the transnational discourse between Japan and China. Terminologically and conceptually, they not only paved the way for the appropriation of ‘Asia’ discourse by Japanese imperialism from the early 1930s onwards but also facilitated the embrace of Sino-centric conceptions of Asianism by Chinese politicians and collaborators. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxi Introduction (Torsten Weber)....Pages 1-30 Studying Asianism: The Impact and Legacy of Takeuchi Yoshimi (Torsten Weber)....Pages 31-61 Asia Becomes an ism: Early Chinese and Japanese Asianism (Torsten Weber)....Pages 63-105 Asianism During World War One: Macro-Nationalism or Micro-Worldism? (Torsten Weber)....Pages 107-166 The Racialization of ‘Asia’ in the Post-Versailles Period (Torsten Weber)....Pages 167-227 The Regionalization of ‘Asia’: Asianism from Below and Its Failure (Torsten Weber)....Pages 229-266 Asianism From Above: The Realization of ‘Asia’ in Manchuria (Torsten Weber)....Pages 267-317 Conclusion: Continuing Antagonisms and Asianism Today (Torsten Weber)....Pages 319-336 Back Matter ....Pages 337-407