Commerce and Empire in the Borderlands： How do Merchants and Trade Fit into Qing Frontier History？

As our understanding of the Qing empire and its various borderlands has evolved, so too have we come to appreciate China＇s early modem commercial sophistication. In recent North American studies of the Qing, the links between commerce and conquest have come under investigation, and we are increasingly urged to pay attention to merchants and merchant capital. But how should we understand the relationship between merchants and the Qing empire in the borderlands？ This article surveys selected work on the borderlands and commercialization, primarily in the Northwest and Southwest. The goal is to initiate a more comprehensive discussion of how to understand the intersection of commerce and empire while also making some suggestions for ways that borderlands history might shape future work on China.     

Stepping into the Public World： Cases of Guixiu Philanthropic Activities in Late Qing China

This article explores the of certain elite women during late little-known public philanthropic activities Qing China. By examining contemporary newspapers, it traces the new development of women＇s philanthropic engagement and further analyzes two cases, one on disaster relief and the other on women＇s education, to illustrate the issues, controversies and achievements that went along with women＇s philanthropy. It demonstrates how philanthropy, a traditionally-sanctioned field for women＇s activism, legitimatized women to move out of domestic seclusion and reposition themselves in the public sphere in a crucial transitional era when for ＂good women＂ to appear in public was something hotly debated, and how through philanthropic opportunities some were able to engage with political affairs. The broad social impact of their initiatives suggests the continued importance of traditional elite women during China＇s transition to the modern era; it challenges some of our previous notions, which often unthinkingly accepted the verdict of ＂New Women＂ that those who did not embrace their path to modernity were parasitic, unproductive, and backward. By looking carefully at philanthropy, the article reveals fascinating issues and rich details of women＇s public activities that previous historical narratives have often overlooked. It helps to understand how reconfigured traditions became essential components of modernity in the development of modern Chinese gender roles. It also adds a gender perspective to the burgeoning historiography on Chinese philanthropy.     

Editors' Note

As FHC enters a new year,we are very pleased to report on the progress the journal has made in the past year.FHC has published articles on a wide range of topics on Chinese history,featuring a variety of approaches.Whether the methodology was mainstream or cutting edge,all have inspired new ways of conceptualizing Chinese history.In addition to one issue that examined the relationships between the Qing government and its neighbor countries and border areas,FHC launched three forums in the past year.One forum asked how we might,through the lens of critical theory,Marxism,and novel approaches to 20th century capitalism,reinterpret 20th century China.Another forum discussed issues of pregnancy,childrearing,and wedding ceremonies to explore how intellectuals re-conceptualized family management by combining traditional expectations with imported,scientific concepts and practices and how scholars,educators,journalists and officials shifted relationships between Chinese families and the state.The final forum focused on state-building and the transformation of politics,society,economy,and culture under Communist rule in the 1950s and early 1960s.     

Recalling the War in China： The Dahoufang Project in Chongqing and the Restoration of a Legacy

This article presents a rare inside view of a unique project currently underway in China to study and preserve the memory of possibly the single most seminal event in Chinese modern history, the War of Resistance against Japan （1937-45）. The article introduces a multi-faceted program to preserve the wartime cultural heritage; the work is ongoing in the thriving western metropolis of Chongqing, once China＇s bomb-torn wartime capital and international Allied command center. It describes how, seven decades after World War II, scholars, cultural workers, government experts, and artists in China are joining hands in an unprecedented, all-encompassing project to record, restore, and recount the extraordinary legacy of China＇s War of Resistance in its local, as well as national and global contexts.     

History,Culture, and Politics： On Historical Formation and Identity Dilemmas of ＂China＂

This lecture is concerned with some historical issues of ＂China,＂ ＂territory, culture＂ and ＂identity＂ that are placed against the background of politics, culture and scholarship in contemporary China. I want to draw attention to the question of how historians understand and interpret ＂China.＂ It addresses the following questions. First, where did the idea of ＂China＂ come from？ and how did it become a topic of scholarly research？ What kind of dilemmas does ＂China＂ confront in its current condition and historical interpretation？ Second, how do various new historical theories and methods in international academic circles enrich our understanding of ＂China＂？ Third, how does China＇s history and reality challenge the theories of ＂empire＂ and ＂nation-state＂？ Fourth, is it possible to write ＂East Asian history＂？ Does ＂national history＂ prove still effective in describing China or East Asia？     

Chinese Socialism as Vernacular Cosmopolitanism

This paper follows the life of an idea, a fundamental concept in modern Chinese intellectual life： socialism. It explores this idea as an alternative form of Chinese cosmopolitanism, drawing from Pheng Cheah＇s identification of two kinds of Chinese cosmopolitanism： mercantile and revolutionary. If part of what we mean by cosmopolitanism is the local use of an external, or international, or otherwise ＂independent＂ （relative to local power and practice） ideology or discourse to promote an agent＇s sense of social good at home and connection to the world, then the ways that socialist thought, ideology and praxis have been employed in China in the twentieth century constitute one such strain of cosmopolitanism. Shehuizhuyi （socialism） meant related but significantly different things to Chinese in the twentieth century. This essay argues that Chinese socialism can be viewed as a version of vernacular cosmopolitanism through two examples： Wang Shiwei in the 1940s and Deng Tuo in the 1960s, as well as the discourse of Pan-Asianism before and after the Mao era. Chinese socialism was as much a terrain of debate and contestation about what it means to be ＂Chinese and modern＂ as it was a shared vocabulary and set of aspirations. All along it has been able to play the role of cosmopolitan thought for some influential Chinese thinkers and doers--connecting China to the world in order to pursue universal values.     

Wu Jen-shu,Jibian liangmin： ehuantong Zhongguo chengshi qunzhong jiti xingdong zhi fenxi （Good Citizens Turning Rebel： Analyses of Urban Mass Collective Actions in Traditional China）

Scholars have long been interested in rebellions and revolution in Chinese history The interest has a real-world basis： China＇s long and turbulent past is a rich minefor academic study, and the country＇s seemingly endless conflicts and struggles in recent centuries give such study relevance to reality. For obvious reasons, most studies of Chinese rebellions and revolutions focus on rural society. Wu Jen-shu＇s Jibian liangmin is among relatively few works that devote attention to public, and often violent, expressions of displeasure in Chinese cities and towns before modern times.     

A Lone Islet or A Center of Communications? Shanghai in the Indian National Army Movement

Students of modem Chinese history,and modern Shanghai history in particular,tend to view Shanghai as having been a lone islet during the Pacific War,when it was cut off from other parts of the world.This article,however,argues that Shanghai was still well connected to areas under the control of the Japanese throughout the war.Using the Sikh community in Shanghai as a case,it demonstrates how the Indian National Army used both a Japanese-initiated military highway and the long-existing Indian diasporic network in Southeast and East Asia to facilitate a certain kind of mobilization.It further sheds light on how the Sikhs in Shanghai were influenced by and responded to the Indian National Army's endeavors.     

Policy Blending,Fuzzy Chronology,and Local Understandings of National Initiatives in Early 1950s China

This article proposes the concept of policy blending to improve our understanding of the densely interactive quality of political initiatives in early 1950s China. Using three cases studies, I argue that policy blending, defined as the process by which previous political experiences shaped the implementation and interpretation of those subsequent to them （sometimes in ways contrary to the government＇s intentions）, occurred frequently during this period, to the extent that people＇s understanding of the first years of Chinese Communist Party rule cannot be separated from this phenomenon. Using examples from marriage registration, the Marriage Law and the national discussion of the 1954 draft Constitution, I advance the historiographical argument that the early 1950s should not be demarcated by, or taught mainly with reference to, ＂temporally encapsulated＂ policies with clear beginnings and ends （i.e., policy ＂a＂ occurred in year ＂b,＂ followed by policy ＂c＂ in year ＂d＂）. Rather, policies seeped into each other, producing a blurry--but sometimes accurate--＂impression＂ of state power. I further suggest that the concept of policy blending can be helpful in understanding subsequent political initiatives as well.     

A College Student's Rural Journey: Early Sociology and Anthropology in China Seen through Fieldwork on Sichuan's Secret Society

This paper focuses on the investigators of rural society in the Republican period,specifically research made through fieldwork on the Gowned Brothers (or,Paoge) in 1940s Sichuan.It takes up one such investigator,Shen Baoyuan—a student at Yenching University;her youthful work never became published or recognized.The present study reveals how the pioneers of Chinese sociology and anthropology,who called themselves "rural activists," tried to understand rural China.It argues that the developments in those fields in China of the 1920s and 1940s made it possible for us today to have a better understanding of the contemporary rural problems.The investigators played an important role in the Rural Construction and Rural Education Movements in Republican China.They show us how Western sociology and anthropology were localized in order to answer "Chinese questions" and to solve "Chinese problems." As source material,these investigations have given us rich records,which in turn have become precious sources and historical memories of rural China's past.     

Restituting Church Buildings and Negotiating Church Factions： Missionary Mapmakers and the Making of Local Networks （1712-1716）

At the turn of the 18th century, the Kangxi emperor initiated a large project to map the vast territories of the Qing. The land surveys that ensued were executed by teams of Qing officials and European missionaries, most of them French Jesuits first sent to China in 1685 and actively supported by the French crown. Early 18th century Jesuit publications foster a much-heralded claim that these missionary-mapmakers drew on their status of imperial envoys during the surveys to locally advance the position of the Catholic church. This article strives to explore the format/on of such local networks by these missionaries as they passed through the cities and towns of the Chinese provinces. On the basis of archival material, details emerge of contacts with local Qing administrators and Chinese Christians, and of attempts to purchase and recover local churches. This is then discussed against the background of the Rites Controversy, in an attempt to evaluate how such local networks relate to the rivalry between missionaries of different orders. The article emphasizes that there was （and perhaps is） no such thing as ＂pure science＂ by underscoring that important technical achievements such as the Qing mapping project are often shaped by complex networks and historical contingencies.     

Record of the Hump Route Mapping

Editor＇s Note： Hu Mingcheng, the author of this article, was born in the Hanchuan County of Hubei Province in 1917. After graduation from the National Land Survey School in 1940, he began land surveying work. In the Chinese People＇s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, he took part in the cartography work of the India-China border regions involving cooperation between China and America, and was charged with surveying the difficult areas in Kham. At the beginning of 1947, he went to America for advanced studies at the US Navy Astronomical Observatory and the Coastal Survey Bureau. He came back to China in the fall of 1948. In May 1949, he joined the headquarters of the 2nd field army in Nanjing, occupying the post of deputy captain of the Survey Squadron. In October of the same year, he took part in the battle to liberate the southwest. He was transferred to the Mapping Bureau of the Military Committee as a researcher. In recent years he wrote ＂The on-the-spot record of the India-China chart mapping by China and America in the Chinese People＇s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression＂. We have chosen a part of his narrative to share with readers.     

Defiant Retreat： The Relocation of Middle Schools to China＇s Interior, 1937-1945

This study focuses on the migration of middle school students to the interior of China after the Japanese invaded in 1937. It argues that the Guomindang （GMD） central government was generally successful in handling the 500,000 displaced students, making substantial efforts to monitor, register, educate, and provide training for them, as well as establishing government-run ＂national middle schools＂ during the war. Meanwhile, the GMD also exerted a strong influence on course curriculum, instructing educators how to implement the Three People＇s Principles and other party doctrines in classrooms. These processes expanded the state＇s hand in secondary education and allowed the GMD to include refugee students and schools in its wartime narrative of progress, praising the students＇ patriotic participation in defying the Japanese occupiers and their contribution to ＂national reconstruction＂ （jianguo）. However, there were still many challenges. Refugee students, teachers, and principals forcibly converted Buddhist temples into schools and clashed with local monks, farmers, villagers, and even the GMD military. With schools merging and moving inland, relocation also provided opportunities for unscrupulous administrators and teachers to exploit the situation for themselves, as government reports reveal many cases of corruption in the wartime schools.     

Female Workers,Political Mobilization,and the Meaning of Revolutionary Citizenship in Beijing, 1948-1950

After entering Beijing in January 1949, the Communist Party immediately sent cadres to local factories in order to mobilize female industrial workers into a women＇s movement and to establish the idea of ＂revolutionary citizenship.＂ The Party wished to nurture this idea in both the local political arena and in women＇s lives inside and outside the factories. This article demonstrates that a host of factors defined revolutionary citizenship, including party directives, choices in revolutionary strategy, cadres＇ interpretations of directives and their own initiatives, and workers＇ reactions to mobilization. It was in this complex mix of mobilization, women＇s strategies to protect and advance their own interests, and the politics of group representation in the revolution, that female workers came to understand the meaning and impact of revolutionary citizenship and the shape of labor-state relations in the emerging socialist China.     

HIGHLIGHTS

King Gesar is a focus of study in and outside China. Accomplished scholars include:——Alexandra David-Neel (1868-1969): A noted French expert in Oriental studies, Chinese and Tibetan studies in the 20th century, she visited Tibet and surrounding areas five times for survey. Her treatises and diaries related to the Orient, especially to Tibet and related areas, were translated into many languages and published repeatedly.——Ren Neiqiang (1894-1989): A noted geologist, an expert in ethnic groups and a pioneer in Tibetan studies. From 1939 to 1944, he published his Initial Introduction to "Tibetan Three Kingdoms" and "On the Three Kingdoms" in Border Government Affairs Forum and Kangdao Month.——R.A. Stein (1911-1999): He is held as the most successful Tibetan study worker in France in the 20th century. And he was one of the few who could do research in both Tibetan and Chinese. His contribution to the study of King Gesarfinds expression in his effort to translate the epic.——Wang Yinuan (1907-1998): A     

Lady Avengers in Jin He＇s （1818-1885） Narrative Verse of Female Knight-Errantry

Jin He 金和 (1818–1885), a pioneering poet of mid-nineteenth century China, wrote in a colloquial style strongly influenced by the ballad tradition. Jin’s style was prose-like and broke all the structural limitations of earlier poetry in order to create formal innovations, while at the same time experimenting with new subject matter. Liang Qichao 梁啟超 (1873–1929) and Hu Shi 胡適 (1891–1962) considered Jin He and Huang Zunxian 黃遵憲 (1848–1905) to be the major poets of the nineteenth century. Jin had a major impact both on other late nineteenth-century poets and on the “Poetic Revolution” that led to the rise of modern Chinese literature. However, his verse has been largely ignored ever since. Among the most striking contributions Jin made to the literary transition in the nineteenth century was his innovation in presenting the female knight-errant 女俠 (nüxia). This invented image of the female knight-errant reflected a new tradition of women’s voices in the literary works of his time, and had a great impact on the representation of swordswomen in modern literature. This paper examines how the image of nüxia in Jin’s writing is distinct from those found in past poetry, how the female knight-errant in Jin’s works inverts conventional gender norms, and how Jin’s female knight-errant image is both connected with and distinct from those in other literary forms.     

Chen Yao-huang,Integrate and Divide： The Communist Revolution in Hebei Area, 1921-1949 （in Chinese）

For decades, the victory of the Chinese Communist Party （CCP） has been fascinating historians of modem China who work outside of the People＇s Republic of China. After recognizing the complexity of the Chinese Revolution, they have tended to focus on specific regions, applying the approaches of a variety of disciplines including sociology, a trend that gave rise to the field of ＂base area studies,＂ marked by the publishing of Mark Sheldon＇s The Yenan Way in 1971. This new book by Chen Yao-huang is another remarkable contribution to the study of base areas.     

Lhundrup Tsomo WISHES Tashi Dampa BE THE VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR Once More

In the change of season from spring to summer in 2008, our research team revisited Lhundrup Tsomo＇s family. She was worried and askedus about the health situation of the village administrator＇s wife who was ill, and the village administrator had already taken her to see doctors. With her perseverance, we had to inform her that the wife of the village administrator Tashi Dampa was suffering from breast cancer and she was undergoing chemical therapy in the People＇s Hospital i,n Lhasa and surgery might soon take place. On hearing that, Lhundrup Tsomo immediately became sad and she told us stories about how sucha situation developed in Tashi Dampa＇s family during recent years. Since the village administrator devoted his time and efforts to take care of the village and his fellow villagers, he did less for his family but rather left it all to his wife, which led to her final tragedy.     

The Urban “Cultural Nexus of Power”： Intellectual Elites in Shanghai and Beijing, 1900-1937

In the decades before the full-scale war with Japan in 1937, a robust series of institutions connected the bourgeois with intellectuals （which included professionals and journalists, as well as academics） in Shanghai. Collectively, these institutions can be understood as forming an urban ＂cultural nexus of power＂ that allowed non-state actors to effectively control aspects of Shanghai＇s political life. This bourgeois-intellectual alliance was not inevitable; no similar bonds existed between these same two groups in Beijing. It was forged in Shanghai due to the city＇s unique historical position as a Treaty Port and its dynamic economy, which included an extensive structure of private higher education and a market-based publishing industry. Unlike the rural ＂cultural nexus of power＂ originally described by Prasenjit Duara, this urban nexus grew stronger during the political and economic changes of the early twentieth century. War and revolution in the 1930s and 1940s, however, destroyed the connections between the bourgeoisie and the intellectuals, ending the vibrant urban environment they had created.