Japan and China did not begin to emerge as unified political
entities until the nineteenth century. Yet scholars and politicians
persistently refer to "Japan" and "China" in discussions of earlier
periods, as if the modern nation-state had long been established in
these regions. Joshua Fogel here brings together essays by eight
renowned East Asian scholars to demonstrate why this oversight
distorts our historical analysis and understanding of both
countries. The nation-states of Japan and China developed much
later and, indeed, far less uniformly than usually conveyed in
popular myth and political culture. Moreover, the false depiction
of an earlier national identity not only alters the factual record;
it serves the contemporary engines of nationalist mythology and
propaganda. This interdisciplinary volume asks deceptively simple
questions: When did "Japan" and "China" become Japan and China?
When and why do inhabitants begin to define their identity and
interests nationally rather than locally? Identifying the role of
mitigating factors from disease and travel abroad to the subtleties
of political language and aesthetic sensibility, the answers
provided in these diverse and insightful essays are appropriately
complex. By setting aside Western notions of the nation-state, the
contributors approach each region on its own terms, while the
thematic organization of the book provides a unique lens through
which to view the challenges common to understanding both Japan and
China. This highly readable collection will be important to
scholars both inside and beyond the field of East Asian studies.
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