The Invention of China

Bill Hayton tells the story of how "China" came to think of itself as China-and what it means for our world today "[A] smart take on modern Chinese nationalism."-Foreign Policy In this compelling and highly-readable account, Hayton shows how China's present-day geopolitical problems-the fates of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, and the South China Sea-were born in the struggle to create a modern nation-state. He brings alive the fevered debates of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when reformers and revolutionaries adopted foreign ideas to "invent' a new vision of China. Ranging across history, nationhood, language, and territory, Hayton shows how a few radicals, often living in exile, adopted European beliefs about race and nation to rethink China's past and create a new future. He weaves together political and personal stories to show how Chinese nationalism�emerged from the connections between east and west. These ideas continue to motivate and direct the country's policies into the twenty first century. By asserting a particular version of the past Chinese governments have bolstered their claims to a vast territory stretching from the Pacific to�Central Asia.