Asian Forms of the Nation

Description

The general tendency among theorists in nationalism and national identity has been to assume that the modernization process in Asia and Africa is a kind of distorted reflection of a Western precedent; Asian forms of the nation have rarely been seen as independent, alternative models. Among today's leading theoreticians, there is a growing tendency to take Asia seriously, and to include Asian examples in the general discussion. The aim of the present collection is to build on and reinforce this tendency. It does not postulate any specifically Asian form of the nation, as opposed to a Western one. Rather, it seeks to demonstrate that in Asia, as well as in Europe, each nation forms a unique amalgam which can be compared fruitfully with others. History, culture and geography have posed various kinds of limits to what can be imagined (as Benedict Anderson puts it). The relationship between geographical space and national construction is explored in depth here. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents CHAPTER ONE Asia in Theories of Nationalism and National Identity CHAPTER TWO The Frontiers of Japanese Identity CHAPTER THREE Maps and the Formation of the Geo-Body of Siam CHAPTER FOUR Annam and Vietnam in the New Indochinese Space, 1887–1945 CHAPTER FIVE Gender and Nation in Hindu Nationalism CHAPTER SIX Contradictions and Ambivalence in the Hindu Nationalist Discourse in West Bengal CHAPTER SEVEN 'This God-Forsaken Country': Filipino Images of the Nation CHAPTER EIGHT Blood, Territory and National Identity in Himalayan States CHAPTER NINE The Karen Making of a Nation CHAPTER TEN Nationalism Transcending the State: Changing Conceptions of Chinese Identity CHAPTER ELEVEN The Construction of the Post-Colonial Subject in Malaysia CHAPTER TWELVE Nations-of-Intent in Malaysia SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS