Most scholars believe that China's nationality policy, like that of other socialist states, imitated the Soviet nationality model, a system which has been termed an 'affirmative action empire'.
This book offers two contributions to the literature which run counter to this convention. First, it argues that the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Soviet Union (USSR) were different; while the PRC was aimed to build an ideal-typical nation-state, the USSR was an open union of nation-states that was only temporarily confined to a physical territory. Second, while scholars who have noted this difference attribute it to contextual factors, such as ethnic structure, geopolitical status, and Russia's intervention into the Chinese Revolution, this book contends that context shaped the Sino-Soviet difference, yet it did not determine it. Rather, there was significant leeway between the implications of the contextual factors, and what the policy-designers ultimately established. This book probes who held agency, and how these individuals bridged this gap.
By:
Luyang Zhou
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 16mm
Weight: 559g
ISBN: 9781526182753
ISBN 10: 1526182750
Series: Alternative Sinology
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 10 June 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
General/trade
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
1 Empires, nation states, and two revolutions 2 From an open union to an enclosed nation state 3 Reconciliation with traditional “Russia” and “China” 4 Revolution, nationalism, and multiethnic integration Conclusion: Two revolutions in Communist and world history Appendix 1: Figures Appendix 2: Tables A note on prosopographic references Bibliography Index -- .
Luyang Zhou is an assistant professor of sociology at Zhejiang University.
