Out of China: How the Chinese Ended the Era of Western Domination

Description

Nationalism matters in China, and what matters in China matters to everyone. China’s new nationalism, Robert Bickers shows, is rooted not in its present power but in shameful memories of its former weaknesses. Invaded, humiliated, and looted in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by foreign powers, China looks out at the twenty-first century through the lens of the past. History matters deeply to Beijing’s current rulers, and Out of China explains why. Bickers tracks the long, often agonizing process by which the Chinese regained control of their own country. He describes the corrupt, lurid modernity of prewar Shanghai, the often tiny patches of extraterritorial land controlled by foreign powers, the entrepôts of Hong Kong and Macao, and the myriad means―through armed threats, technology, and legal chicanery―by which China was kept subservient until, gradually, it emerged from Western control. This plural and partial subjugation of China is a story that involves not only European powers and Japan but also the United States. This complex history must be grasped not to atone for the sins of the past but to recognize China’s internationalized landscapes with all their contradictions, violence, cosmopolitanism, and ambitions. The story of the foreign presence in China in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is too important to be left in the hands of the Chinese party-state and its approved script. Out of China is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand what shapes China’s view of the world in the twenty-first century. Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Dedication......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 List of Illustrations......Page 10 List of Maps......Page 14 Acknowledgements......Page 28 Pronunciation Guide......Page 30 List of Abbreviations......Page 31 Introduction......Page 32 Chapter 1. Armistice......Page 44 Chapter 2. Making Revolution......Page 78 Chapter 3. Good Earth......Page 114 Chapter 4. Talking it Over......Page 144 Chapter 5. China in the Mind......Page 183 Chapter 6. Monkeys Riding Greyhounds......Page 217 Chapter 7. Allies of a Kind......Page 262 Chapter 8. Foreign Experts......Page 296 Chapter 9. Light of Asia......Page 340 Chapter 10. Monsters and Demons......Page 373 Chapter 11. Unfinished Business......Page 409 Chapter 12. Haunted by History......Page 458 Further Reading, Watching and Listening......Page 468 Notes......Page 472 Index......Page 552