EmpireNationDiversityinChina

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

"Empire, nation and diversity in China: East Asian worldviews and identity, past and present." Many contemporary issues involving China, from its vaunted Belt and Road Initiative to the status of Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan, turn upon questions rooted in the past: What is China? Who is Chinese? Is there a traditional “Chinese World Order” or Tianxia? Have China and East Asia exhibited a form of international relations different from that of other parts of the world? Sweeping from past to present, this course will consider Chinese thinking about identity and diversity within Chinese polities and between Chinese polities and other peoples, with an eye to understanding both separatism within China and China’s efforts to integrate with, or promote its own, world order.