Frontier of China: Historical Memory and Ethnic Identity

Author: Wang Mingke
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
Features: What exactly are the Chinese? Why do we call ourselves Chinese? As a Taiwanese scholar researching the history of ethnic minorities on China's frontier, the author cites extensive historical, archaeological, and anthropological evidence to interpret the essence of the Huaxia (Chinese) from a new perspective—the formation of ethnic peripheries and historical memory. It explains how the Huaxia periphery formed and evolved in specific resource competition and distribution environments, how the Huaxia used historical memory and amnesia to consolidate and expand, and how ethnic groups on the Huaxia periphery became part of the Huaxia or remained outside through historical memory and amnesia. This book employs the "periphery research" method to offer a fresh interpretation of the "Huaxia periphery." The author argues that "periphery research" is "a research method that shifts the focus from the of the nation to its periphery." Through discussions on topics such as the formation of the "Huaxia ecological boundary," the "formation and expansion of the Huaxia ethnic periphery," and the "maintenance and transformation of the Huaxia ethnic periphery," it reveals how the Huaxia periphery formed and evolved in specific resource competition and distribution environments, how the Huaxia used historical memory and amnesia to consolidate and expand, and how ethnic groups on the Huaxia periphery became part of the Huaxia or remained outside through historical memory and amnesia. What exactly are the Chinese? As a Taiwanese scholar researching the history of ethnic minorities on China's frontier, the author cites extensive historical, archaeological, and anthropological evidence to interpret the essence of the Huaxia (Chinese) from a new perspective—the formation of ethnic peripheries and historical memory. It explains how the Huaxia periphery formed and evolved in specific resource competition and distribution environments, how the Huaxia used historical memory and amnesia to consolidate and expand, and how ethnic groups on the Huaxia periphery became part of the Huaxia or remained outside through historical memory and amnesia.