The Edge of China

What is Chinese? How did Chinese identity originate and evolve?
· The acclaimed work of renowned historical anthropologist Wang Mingke, a key text for understanding Chinese history and ethnicity · Understanding ethnicity from a marginal perspective, reflecting on identity within historical memory · Essential reading for humanities and social sciences research · Completely revised and reprinted, with a lengthy preface Wang Mingke uses a vivid metaphor: when we draw a shape on a piece of paper, it is actually its "edge" that makes it appear as a shape... His research does not simply describe the history of the Han Chinese nation, nor does it describe the history of a particular ethnic minority. Rather, it uses the historical evolution of the "Huaxia margin" to illustrate the profound changes from ancient Huaxia to modern China, and thereby explores the resource competition, monopoly, and conflict between groups within and outside the "margin," and even the process of reintegration and sharing within the contemporary concept of nation.
This book has had a significant impact on the study of anthropology, ethnology, and history in the Chinese-speaking world. The author explores the history of the growth and expansion of the Chinese nation from the unique perspective of the formation and transformation of ethnic marginality, thus providing a new paradigm for advancing the study of Chinese history with a fresh and captivating argument.
Based on his questioning of both monism and pluralism regarding the formation of the Chinese nation, Luo Xin utilizes a variety of tools to propose and demonstrate the profound significance of "marginal theory" in the formation and evolution of the Chinese nation. "Ethnic identity" and "historical memory" are two key concepts underpinning this theory, and the author's historical and logical narrative is convincing. I would also like to point out the author's fundamental academic foundation and aspiration, namely, the relationship between scholarship and life—a particularly valuable and respectable position in today's world of professionalization and instrumentalization of academia. This book opens a path to self-awareness for the Chinese people, a path far beyond the reach of merely discussing specific issues. I sincerely salute the author!
——Liu Suli Introduction:
"The Edge of China" is a major study by renowned scholar Wang Mingke exploring the relationship between ethnic identity and historical development in the Chinese nation, offering a new approach to the question, "What is Chinese?" Wang Mingke argues, "When we draw a circle on a piece of paper, it's actually its 'edge' that makes it appear circular." He views "China" as a human ecology within long-term history, and the "edge of China" represents not only a temporal and geographical edge but also an identity edge. Within specific resource competition and environmental allocation, and within the collective shaping and amnesia of memory, the formation, transformation, and maintenance of the edge of China also illuminates the formation and transformation of the Chinese ethnic group and identity.
"The Margins of China" is a classic work of theoretical paradigmatic significance, enjoying widespread popularity over its many years of publication. The first part of the book primarily presents the book's theoretical framework and analytical methods. The second part, drawing on archaeological materials, illustrates the human ecological context for the formation of the Huaxia ethnic boundary. The third part expounds on the crucial foundations of the Huaxia ethnic group, namely the Zhou people's ethnic origin legends and historical records, and illustrates the shifts between Sinicization and de-Sinicization among marginalized ethnic groups through examples such as the Jing, Chu, and Wu regions. The fourth part focuses on the reconstruction of the Huaxia margin in modern times, analyzing the tensions between individuals, ethnic groups, and society in the process of identity formation through micro-case studies conducted during the 1940s. Drawing on theories and materials from various disciplines, including social anthropology, archaeological excavation reports, and historical documents, combined with personal fieldwork among the Qiang people, Wang Mingke explores in depth the relationship between resources and the environment and ethnic margins, the interplay between historical memory and ethnic identity, and the differences between individual and collective memory and identity, aiming to provide further reflection and new insights into contemporary issues of national and ethnic identity.

2020-07-01

上海人民出版社

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9787208163898