Chineseness and Modernity in a Changing China

This book is a collection of essays in honour of Professor Wang Gungwu. Professor Wang is not only a great historian on Chinese history in general and the Chinese overseas in particular, but has much wider influence through remarkable domain crossing, namely spatial crossing characterised by geographical straddling between inside and outside of China, temporal crossing from the ancient past to the contemporary, inter-disciplinary crossing from history to the social sciences, and intellectual crossing from the academia to public activism. He has been a long-lasting source of inspiration for understanding some of the most pressing and complex issues in our times, including the nature of China's rise and its implications for the regional and world order. In a nutshell, this book presents Wang as a highly active educator-scholar who has achieved the highest academic standard as well as far-reaching influence over issues that concern all walks of life. By focusing on the theme of Chineseness and China's modernity, this book adds depth to the analysis of China's rise and its implications for the region and the world. It contains a chapter providing the most comprehensive and updated review of Wang's scholarship thus far. Another chapter demonstrates how Wang,based on his deep understanding of Chinese civilisation and history, articulates a distinct view of the world order that differs from either the thesis of Thucydides's trap" or the advocacy of mutual accommodation. Interestingly, this book also includesa chapter that highlights Wang's "Southeast Asian-ness", suggesting that Wang's scholarship cautions against not only western-centric views towards China, but also Sino-centric views towards Southeast Asia. In short, this edited volume is both a reference book for understanding Wang's scholarship and an extension of his scholarship to the analysis of China's growing international influence and its implications for the world order. Contents: Introduction; Approaches to History and Domain Crossings of a Pioneering Scholar: Reflections on Wang Gungwu and His Scholarship; The Southeast Asian-ness of a China Scholar; Where History Meets Contemporary Policy; Globalisation and the Chineseness of the Chinese State; "Chineseness" in History Textbooks: The Narrative of Early China as a Case; The Logic of Political Reform: To What End Chinese Politics; Party Modernisation and Bureaucratic Reform in the Era of Xi Jinping; Decline and Repositioning of the Communist Youth League in China; Indigenous Technology as Chinese Modernity; The Use of History in Divided China: Diverging Reappraisals of the KMT in Mainland China and Taiwan; The State of Cross-Strait Relations in the Wake of Taiwan's January 2016 Election; A Nanyang Approach to the Belt and Road Initiative: Malaysia and Its Dilemmas; Beijing's New Policy Towards the Chinese Overseas: Some Reflections; China and Globalisation: China's Rise, Globalisation 4.0 and Innovative Global Governance."--