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With the collective retreat of colonialism on a global scale, people were beginning to celebrate ... more With the collective retreat of colonialism on a global scale, people were beginning to celebrate their entry into a world that had been formally "decolonized." However, the disappearance of the colonizers and the colonized did not alter the original contradictions, and the consequences of colonialism continue to be felt in the political, economic, cultural institutions, and even in the popular mentality of all former colonies and all countries that emphasize the tension between themselves and Western hegemony. Colonies that were originally mere colonies in Western cartography, although they have been regarded as independent modern nation-states, are in many ways nothing more than imitations and copies of their former conquerors. That national identity, which was used to define the self, not only did not become stronger with the departure of the colonizers but was also somewhat confused by the onslaught of ethnicism. 1 Even those countries that had never been colonized, faced with the impact of the "second colonization" within the global capitalist system, had to embrace it with a certain sense of redemption and regret. Postcolonialism is a response to this situation, emphasizing the urgency and relevance of the continued "decolonization" of formerly colonized countries, or the Third World in general, and seeking to dismantle the Westerncentric cultural and political landscape and redefine the cultural identity of the Third World and its national cultural outlook. Postcolonialism's clear sense of practice and its strong "counter-discourse" characteristic make it one of the most influential and rapidly expanding fields of academic research, 2 spanning Note: Translation from the Chinese text "Houzhimin zhuyi yu houzhimin shixue" by Q. Edward Wang.
The rise of global history in China is almost synchronous with its rise in the West. In the West,... more The rise of global history in China is almost synchronous with its rise in the West. In the West, global history received official international attention in academic circles in 2000, when, at the 19th International Congress of Historical Sciences that was held in Oslo, Norway in that year, one of important themes was global history. 3 In China, Capital Normal University in Beijing took the lead in setting up China's first Global History Research Center in late 2004, and, in cooperation with the US World History Association, organized an international conference on 'World History Teaching in the World' held in October 2005. This was the first time that global history, as a research approach and perspective, entered the horizon of the public and of academia in China. In the wake of these initiatives, the systematic introduction into China of global history theories and methodologies began. Moreover, the Global History Research Center published its annual Global History Review in 2008, only two years after the Journal of Global History was inaugurated in London in 2006. Since then, the Global History Review has published 18 volumes, and has become semi-annual. As for books related to global history, Globalization and Global History, edited by Yu Pei, was published in Beijing in 2007. It was the first collection on global history published in China, basically reflecting Chinese scholars' understanding and knowledge of global history at the time. Just one year before, a book with the same title had been published in the West. 4 Chinese scholars have shown a continuing enthusiasm for global history ever since. A search in the database of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) reveals that from 2004 to the present, 464 articles that contain the term 'global history' in their titles have been published (last accessed 12 December 2019), showing an upward tendency year by year, whereas in 1997-2003 only 8 such articles appeared. In short, since 2004 scholars have paid notably more attention to global history than they had previously, recognizing the advantages that it has over traditional world history, and its potential as a historical research approach in the global era. Under the influence of global history, in many fields of research such as the long-established ones of economic history, history of cultural exchange, and historical geography, or the more recently developed ones of climate history, environmental history and maritime history, there appears to be a move to take 'global' as an important starting point and analytical tool for investigating topics that historians had previously studied from long-term and large-scale perspectives. In consequence, people have been given fresh perspectives on the past. It can be said that a 'global turn' in current historical research in China has now occurred. 5 Enthusiasm for global history, in addition, is also
In ancient China, dissatisfaction with the official compilation of histories gave rise, in time, ... more In ancient China, dissatisfaction with the official compilation of histories gave rise, in time, to reflections on what makes a good historian, as well as on such issues as the factuality and objectivity of history-writing, the relationship between rhetoric and reality, and the value of historians' subjectivity. From these reflections arose a unique set of historiographical concepts. With the coming of modern times, the urgent task of building a nationstate forced Chinese historians to borrow heavily from Western historical theories in their effort to construct a new history compatible with modernity. A tension thus arose between Western theory and Chinese history. The newly founded People's Republic embraced the materialist conception of history as the authoritative guideline for historical studies, which increased the tension. The decline of the materialist conception of history in the period since China's reform and opening up in the late 1970s and, with this development, the increasing plurality of theories, have not exactly lessened Chinese historians' keenly felt anxiety when they confront Western theories. For Chinese historians, the current state of affairs with respect to theory is not exactly an extension of Western theories, nor is it a regression to the particularity of Chinese history completely outside the Western compass. Rather, a certain hybridity with respect to theory provides to Chinese historians a way to move both in and out of the West, as well as an opportunity for them to make their own contributions to Western history on the basis of borrowed Western theories.
Rethinking History, 2013
ABSTRACT
Book Reviews by Xupeng Zhang
With the collective retreat of colonialism on a global scale, people were beginning to celebrate ... more With the collective retreat of colonialism on a global scale, people were beginning to celebrate their entry into a world that had been formally "decolonized." However, the disappearance of the colonizers and the colonized did not alter the original contradictions, and the consequences of colonialism continue to be felt in the political, economic, cultural institutions, and even in the popular mentality of all former colonies and all countries that emphasize the tension between themselves and Western hegemony. Colonies that were originally mere colonies in Western cartography, although they have been regarded as independent modern nation-states, are in many ways nothing more than imitations and copies of their former conquerors. That national identity, which was used to define the self, not only did not become stronger with the departure of the colonizers but was also somewhat confused by the onslaught of ethnicism. 1 Even those countries that had never been colonized, faced with the impact of the "second colonization" within the global capitalist system, had to embrace it with a certain sense of redemption and regret. Postcolonialism is a response to this situation, emphasizing the urgency and relevance of the continued "decolonization" of formerly colonized countries, or the Third World in general, and seeking to dismantle the Westerncentric cultural and political landscape and redefine the cultural identity of the Third World and its national cultural outlook. Postcolonialism's clear sense of practice and its strong "counter-discourse" characteristic make it one of the most influential and rapidly expanding fields of academic research, 2 spanning Note: Translation from the Chinese text "Houzhimin zhuyi yu houzhimin shixue" by Q. Edward Wang.
The rise of global history in China is almost synchronous with its rise in the West. In the West,... more The rise of global history in China is almost synchronous with its rise in the West. In the West, global history received official international attention in academic circles in 2000, when, at the 19th International Congress of Historical Sciences that was held in Oslo, Norway in that year, one of important themes was global history. 3 In China, Capital Normal University in Beijing took the lead in setting up China's first Global History Research Center in late 2004, and, in cooperation with the US World History Association, organized an international conference on 'World History Teaching in the World' held in October 2005. This was the first time that global history, as a research approach and perspective, entered the horizon of the public and of academia in China. In the wake of these initiatives, the systematic introduction into China of global history theories and methodologies began. Moreover, the Global History Research Center published its annual Global History Review in 2008, only two years after the Journal of Global History was inaugurated in London in 2006. Since then, the Global History Review has published 18 volumes, and has become semi-annual. As for books related to global history, Globalization and Global History, edited by Yu Pei, was published in Beijing in 2007. It was the first collection on global history published in China, basically reflecting Chinese scholars' understanding and knowledge of global history at the time. Just one year before, a book with the same title had been published in the West. 4 Chinese scholars have shown a continuing enthusiasm for global history ever since. A search in the database of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) reveals that from 2004 to the present, 464 articles that contain the term 'global history' in their titles have been published (last accessed 12 December 2019), showing an upward tendency year by year, whereas in 1997-2003 only 8 such articles appeared. In short, since 2004 scholars have paid notably more attention to global history than they had previously, recognizing the advantages that it has over traditional world history, and its potential as a historical research approach in the global era. Under the influence of global history, in many fields of research such as the long-established ones of economic history, history of cultural exchange, and historical geography, or the more recently developed ones of climate history, environmental history and maritime history, there appears to be a move to take 'global' as an important starting point and analytical tool for investigating topics that historians had previously studied from long-term and large-scale perspectives. In consequence, people have been given fresh perspectives on the past. It can be said that a 'global turn' in current historical research in China has now occurred. 5 Enthusiasm for global history, in addition, is also
In ancient China, dissatisfaction with the official compilation of histories gave rise, in time, ... more In ancient China, dissatisfaction with the official compilation of histories gave rise, in time, to reflections on what makes a good historian, as well as on such issues as the factuality and objectivity of history-writing, the relationship between rhetoric and reality, and the value of historians' subjectivity. From these reflections arose a unique set of historiographical concepts. With the coming of modern times, the urgent task of building a nationstate forced Chinese historians to borrow heavily from Western historical theories in their effort to construct a new history compatible with modernity. A tension thus arose between Western theory and Chinese history. The newly founded People's Republic embraced the materialist conception of history as the authoritative guideline for historical studies, which increased the tension. The decline of the materialist conception of history in the period since China's reform and opening up in the late 1970s and, with this development, the increasing plurality of theories, have not exactly lessened Chinese historians' keenly felt anxiety when they confront Western theories. For Chinese historians, the current state of affairs with respect to theory is not exactly an extension of Western theories, nor is it a regression to the particularity of Chinese history completely outside the Western compass. Rather, a certain hybridity with respect to theory provides to Chinese historians a way to move both in and out of the West, as well as an opportunity for them to make their own contributions to Western history on the basis of borrowed Western theories.
Rethinking History, 2013
ABSTRACT