An intellectual history of pan-Asianist discourse in the twentieth century.
Recent proposals to revive the ancient Silk Road for the contemporary era and ongoing Western interest in China’s growth and development have led to increased attention to the concept of pan-Asianism. Most of that discussion, however, lacks any historical grounding in the thought of influential twentieth-century pan-Asianists. In this book, Viren Murthy offers an intellectual history of the writings of theorists, intellectuals, and activists—spanning leftist, conservative, and radical rightist thinkers—who proposed new ways of thinking about Asia in their own historical and political contexts. Tracing pan-Asianist discourse across the twentieth century, Murthy reveals a stronger sense of resistance and alternative visions than the contemporary discourse on pan-Asianism would suggest. At the heart of pan-Asianist thinking, Murthy shows, was the notion of a unity of Asian nations, of weak nations becoming powerful, and of the Third World confronting the “advanced world” on equal terms—the latter an idea that grew to include non-Asian countries into the global community of Asian nations. But pan-Asianists also had larger aims, imagining a future beyond both imperialism and capitalism. That the resurgence of pan-Asianist discourse has emerged alongside the dominance of capitalism, Murthy argues, signals a profound misunderstanding of its roots, history, and potential.
By:
Viren Murthy
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: 1
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 399g
ISBN: 9780226828008
ISBN 10: 022682800X
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 25 October 2023
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction: Pan-Asianism in the Short Twentieth Century Chapter One: Asia as Pharmakon: The Early Constitution of Asia as Resistance Chapter Two: The Critique of Linear Time: Pan-Asianism in Early Twentieth-Century China Chapter Three: Asia as Anticapitalist Utopia: Ōkawa Shūmei’s Critique of Political Modernity Chapter Four: Takeuchi Yoshimi, Part I: Rethinking China as Political Subjectivity Chapter Five: Takeuchi Yoshimi, Part II: Pan-Asianism, Revolutionary Nationalism, and War Memory Chapter Six: Wang Hui: Contemporary Pan-Asianist in China? Epilogue: Pan-Asianism, the Chinese Revolution, and Global Moments Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index
Viren Murthy is professor of history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the author of The Political Philosophy of Zhang Taiyan and The Politics of Time in China and Japan.
Reviews for Pan-Asianism and the Legacy of the Chinese Revolution
“Murthy’s book is a breathtaking achievement that combines in a true dialectical synthesis what Western intellectuals consider incompatible. This book is necessary reading for all who are interested in our future!” * Slavoj Žižek * “Against the view of Asia’s rise as treading the path of the capitalist world, this book articulates powerful visions of pan-Asianism. Rethinking representative Asian and Western thinkers, Murthy illuminates how the imaginaries of Asian solidarity and alliances confronted imperialism and colonialism, and how traditional resources, the Chinese Revolution, and socialism were mobilized in projecting a future beyond capitalism.” * Ban Wang, Stanford University * “Since the nineteenth century, the figure of pan-Asian civilization has been imprisoned in permanent standstill, devoid of subjectivity. Murthy brilliantly transforms our understanding by showing how lack was turned into fullness through the proposal that Asia both rescued its own past and provided a crucial supplement to what was missing in the West.” * Harry Harootunian, emeritus, University of Chicago * ""Scholarship on Pan-Asianism has until recently focused on how Pan-Asian conceptions, ideologies, or movements were linked to Japanese imperialism—as a means of its justification or as opposition to it. Viren Murthy’s Pan-Asianism and the Legacy of the Chinese Revolution is a welcome addition to the growing body of publications that demonstrate the importance of transcending Japan to understand what Pan-Asianism constituted historically and why it appealed to a wide range of thinkers and activists, in and outside Japan. By focusing on China as Japan’s most significant Asianist partner or opponent, Murthy follows a recent trend of studies of Pan-Asianism. Murthy transcends the usual temporal focus from the late nineteenth century to the end of World War II to demonstrate how Pan-Asianism is both present and relevant in political discourse also in the twenty-first century."" * American Historical Review *
