Borderland, Border Affairs and Frontier Politics
A Multidimensional Study of Academic Research by Republican Era Chinese Scholars on the Southwest Borderland
Summary
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1. Presentation and Interpretation of Topic
- 2. Literature Review
- 3. Approaches and Methodologies
- 4. Focuses and Difficulties
- 5. Practical Significance and Academic Value
- References
- 1 Research Background
- 1. Social Background
- 2. Academic Foundation
- Summary
- References
- 2 Research on Border Issues in Xikang and Xizang
- 1. Research on Strategic National Defense and Foreign Encroachment in Xikang and Xizang
- 2. Ethnic, Religious, Educational, Transportation, and Economic Developments in Xikang and Xizang
- 3. Social Investigation and Study of the Border Areas in Xikang and Xizang
- Summary
- References
- 3 Research on Border Issues in Yunnan and Guangxi
- 1. Invasion and National Defense
- 2. Study on Ethnic Groups, Religion, Education, Transportation, and Economic Development
- 3. Social Investigation of Border Areas
- Summary
- References
- 4 Aspects Related to Research on Southwestern Border Issues
- 1. Similarities and Differences in the Studies of Frontier Policies in Xikang, Xizang, Yunnan, and Guangxi
- 2. Research on Institutions and Academic Groups
- 3. Research on Characteristics of Academic Journals
- 4. Public Opinion on Frontier Policy and Frontier Policy Research in the Southwest
- 5. Scholars Writing on the Frontier of Xikang, Xizang, Yunnan, and Guangxi
- Summary
- References
- 5 Achievements, Limitations, and Implications
- 1. Achievements
- 2. Characteristics and Limitations
- 3. Impacts
- Summary
- References
- Conclusion
- References
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Republican Era
- Modern and Contemporary Literature
- Important Collections
- Series and Reference Books
- Postscript
Introduction
1. Presentation and Interpretation of Topic
With the relentless expansion of Western colonialism in the East since modern times, the British Empire forced China to open its doors to trade. This was accomplished via gunboats and cannons, as Russia, France, the United States, and Germany successively followed suit. As a result, the Chinese government heard sirens and explosives blasting from the sea and had to fling its doors wide open during the late Qing dynasty. Border crises reached calamitous levels while China was beset by powerful neighbors from all sides. Though the Republic of China was founded after a revolution, its government was still threatened by both domestic conflicts and foreign invasion. Western and eastern powers seized this opportunity and took dividing up the country into a new height, which lasted till July 7th, 1937, when Japan’s all-out invasion of China brought the territorial crisis from the border areas to the heartland. Led by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and through tenacious resistance and brave sacrifices, the Chinese people eventually turned a crisis into an opportunity and accomplished the sacrosanct mission of founding a modern nation-state. Facing increasingly grave border and ethnic crises, a large number of farsighted officials, scholars, and old and new intellectuals emerged in China throughout the late Qing dynasty. These were ←1 | 2→minds keenly aware of an urgent need to save this nation from subjugation and ensure its survival. They actively devoted themselves to frontier studies through a paradigm of “learning to save the world.” They tried to arouse people’s attention to border issues and successfully prompted China’s frontier studies to prolific growths twice in modern times. Ma Dazheng summarized the development of China’s frontier studies since modern times from a macro perspective in “The Historical Mission of Contemporary Researchers of China’s Borderlands” (10), pointing out that
China’s frontier studies have a long history. However, it did not come to a thrive until modern times. There were two prolific growths of frontier studies after the Opium War. The first appeared after the war, when capitalist powers forced the Qing government to open its doors with opium and cannons and a series of unequal treaties triggered serious crises in the northwest, northeast and southwest borderlands successively. Patriotic scholars such as Wei Yuan, He Qiutao, Xia Xie, Liang Tingnan, Xu Jishe and Cao Tingjie deeply felt that the Qing government was waking up to its fate of decline. They hence concentrated on frontier studies in order to defend against enemy and guard border areas. Their works are still considered cautionary tales. The momentum of this research continued until the end of the Qing dynasty. The second lasted from 1920s to 1940s. Distressed by the severe national crisis, a group of Chinese scholars who were educated in theory and methodology for historiography in the west sought to express patriotism of the Chinese people through the research of border issues. They worked diligently and achieved remarkable results. During this era, a large number of scholars and academic organizations and publications sprung up nationwide. Star-studded is not too strong a word to describe the research conducted and the developments achieved at this time.
This book examines Chinese academic research on China’s southwest borderland, which is an important part of the second prolific growth in frontier studies.
The choice of this subject for this book largely derives from the following considerations. First, the Republican era was a period of transition in the history of modern scholarship in China, where academic cultures – old and new, Chinese and western, and ancient and modern – converged, adjusted, and innovated, forming a prolific growth in different schools of thoughts, which was rarely seen in China’s academic history. The special background of border crises has prompted a large number of scholars to write about southwest borderland, leaving many masterpieces. A thorough investigation and review of these achievements is not only beneficial to academic inheritance but also enlightening to the ←2 | 3→reality. Second, the history of modern frontier studies in China is an area that needs urgent cultivation. It is also an important part of the discipline of Frontier Studies. As a faculty at Yunnan University, it is the author’s responsibility and obligation to conduct in-depth research on this important yet challenging subject. Third, there has been no systematic research on it in Chinese mainland to date, though certain relevant but fragmented aspects of it have been addressed. Therefore, a timely review and summary of the history of research and academic history of the southwest borderland is a prerequisite to the promotion of in-depth research on the southwest frontier, an indispensable work not only worthy of vigorous and earnest efforts but also of great academic significance. In view of this, the author intends to combine discussions with case studies, though not all issues and relevant works can be studied in detail. The author really hopes that this book can serve as a stimulus and give colleagues a chance to put forward more opinions and suggestions.
In addition, it should be noted that for expository clarity, the subject matter of this book should be defined as follows: First, the term “scholars in the Republican era” has two components: time (living in this era) and nationality (Chinese). Second, “scholars” in this book mainly refer to individual researchers conducting frontier studies. Sometimes, the word also refers to individuals who wear two hats at the same time: both a government official and a scholar, with either identity being dominant. Third, it is the second prolific growth in frontier studies from the late 1920s to the early 1940s that is the focus of this book, though the whole Republican era is covered. Fourth, “southwest borderland” in this book refers to southwest provinces with land boundaries,1 namely Xizang, Xikang,2 Yunnan, and Guangxi, for which the author has made references to ←3 | 4→a reasonable division of regions as well as Ma Dazheng’s definition of borderland scope.3 Fifth, the book aims to study Chinese academic research on China’s southwest borderland during the Republican era.
2. Literature Review
China was surrounded by powerful neighboring countries and faced with border crises during the Republican era, which not only stimulated Chinese people to study and pay attention to its border issues, but also promoted investigations and works on them. Southwest borderland is a part of China’s border areas. As many colleges and universities moved there and scholars gathered there during the Anti-Japanese War, when the national government moved westward to Chongqing, research on the southwest borderland flourished with a great deal of valuable works published. For a long time, especially from the 1950s to the 1970s, due to ideology and social environment, research on the history of the Republic of China has always been a weak link of Chinese scholars (Y. Zhang and Y. J. Sun), especially many aspects of frontier studies, which even became a field off limits with data blocked and results difficult to publish. Thanks to ideological emancipation and an increasingly free academic atmosphere since the 1980s, the third prolific growth in China’s frontier studies has gradually taken shape and is still in the ascendant, showing a strong momentum of sustained development. However, most of these researches were centered on North China, especially northwest borderland in this era while there were relatively less studies conducted on southwest border areas.←4 | 5→
1. Research on Scholarly Output
Research results on the southwest borderland mainly focused on the fields of Xizangology, history and geography, and ethnography and anthropology. Major achievements related to Xizangology include Wang Yao, Wang Qilong, and Deng Xiaoying’s History of Xizangology in China (Before 1949), which is a relatively complete and authoritative work on the academic history of Xizangology as seen today. The book is divided into five chapters, of which the fourth and fifth chapters briefly introduce and comment on Xizangological research in the Republican era, covering politics and economy, history and geography, religion and culture, education and customs, language and literature, bibliography, and other aspects of Xikang and Xizang. This work is of great significance for researchers to understand the development of Xizangology during the Republican era. Besides, Wang Qilong and Deng Xiaoying’s “Review of Geographical Studies in Xizangan Areas in the First Half of the 20th Century,” “Review of Political Studies in Xizangan Areas in the First Half of the 20th Century,” “Review of Economic Studies in Xizangan Areas in the First Half of the 20th Century,” “Review of Studies on Xizangan Buddhism before 1949,” “Review of Educational Studies in Xizangan Areas before 1949,” and “Review of Studies on Xizangan Culture before 1949,” Wang Qilong’s “Study of Xizangan Language and Characters in the Republic of China,” and Deng Xiaoying’s “Review of Literature on Xizangology in China before 1949” briefly review and comment on the writings (including translations) of geography, military, and political affairs; economy; Buddhism; education; culture; language of Xizang; and Xizangological literature in the first half of the 20th century. They cover a wide range of fields and show the value of the development and achievements of Xizangology in this era from different angles and categories. In addition, Heng Shui’s “Evaluation of ‘Sixty Years in Xizang’” briefly evaluated the important academic value and practical significance of “Sixty Years in Xizang,” fully affirming its clear and firm patriotic stand. Cao Chunmei’s “The Social Investigation and Influence of Chinese on Xikang in the Republic of China,” “On the Types and Reasons of the Chinese Visiting Xikang during the Republic of China,” and so forth systematically comb and comment on the background, types, fields (ethnic groups, religion, politics, economy, and so forth), social influence, and significance of the investigation, which is of great reference to our understanding of the investigation of Xikang by the Chinese scholars in the Republican era. Yang Changhong’s “Study on Liu Zanting’s Xizangan Manuscript” examines the origin, circulation, research value, compilers, and motivation of Liu Zanting’s surviving Xizangan Manuscript. It is believed that ←5 | 6→the manuscript is still a precious historical document for studying the social and economic development of Xikang as well as the history of Sino-foreign relations in the late Qing Dynasty.
When it comes to history and geography, research related to Peng Gui-e and his works on borderlands has yielded notable results. Li Bo’s “Peng Gui-e’s Research on History and Geography of Borderland – A Case Study of ‘The Southwest Border City of Mianning’” and Yang Baokang’s “Peng Gui-e and Study on Yunnan’s Local Culture – Taking ‘Southwest Frontier’ as an Example,” “A Summary of Peng Gui-e’s Frontier Research,” and so forth all review and comment Peng Gui-e’s research on the history and geography of borderlands in the first half of the 20th century, who was a local historical and cultural researcher in Yunnan. Having examined Peng’s five works and seven articles on the southwest frontier, Li and Yang think that Peng’s rigorous and practical study as well as his concern for the country and its people are clearly reflected in his writings (Yang, “A Summary of Peng Gui-e’s Frontier Research”). Pan Xianlin’s “First Academic Summary of Historical and Geographical Studies of Yunnan in 1930s and 1940s – A Brief Introduction to Historical and Geographical Studies of Yunnan” is the most detailed monograph to date on the origin, content, text structure, author, and academic value of Historical and Geographical Studies of Yunnan published by Kunhua House of the Plebs Education of Yunnan province in 1949. It holds that the work is the first academic summary of historical and geographical studies of Yunnan in 1930s and 1940s and has an important position in the academic history of Yunnan. Xiao Xianglong and Yuan Yun’s “Study of Historical and Geographical Research in the Southwest during the Anti-Japanese War” is a brief review of the period when a large number of historical geographical scholars and educational and research institutions gathered in the southwest during the Anti-Japanese War and engaged in historical and geographical research there. They think this era has witnessed outstanding achievements in historical, political, geographical, and ethnic studies in the southwest. However, economic and natural studies were relatively limited.
As to anthropological and ethnological studies, Wang Jianmin’s “Early Practice of Field Work and Writings of China’s Anthropology in Southwest,” Wang Shuiqiao’s “On Academic Research on Ethnic Minorities in Yunnan during the Republican Era,” Cao Minghuang’s “Yunnan Ethnic Studies in the 1930s and 1940s,” Wang Xiaoli’s “Ethnic Studies of Yao in the First Half of the 20th Century,” Liu Xiaoyun’s “A Review of Yang Chengzhi’s Studies on Ethnic Minorities in Southwest in the First Half of the 20th Century,” and “Sun Yat-Sen University and Survey of Ethnic Groups in Southwest in the First Half of the 20th ←6 | 7→Century” are brief reviews of the field work carried out by Chinese anthropologists and ethnologists in the first half of the 20th century in the southwest border areas. They also introduce the research institutions and members of scholars who participated in the field work there during this era as well as their achievements. It is believed that:
the development of anthropology in southwest China had an important impact on the evolution of the theories and methodologies of the discipline, the academic exchanges between China and foreign countries, the creation of a nation-state and the division of ethnic groups. (Wang, “Early Practice of Field Work and Writings of China’s Anthropology in Southwest”)
Many of the writings based on these investigations are milestones in the history of China’s ethnology and anthropology and have deepened people’s understanding of the southwest frontier. Wu Wenzao and Fei Xiaotong, together with “Kui Ge,” the academic group they presided over, reaped the highest achievements in this field. Up to now, scholars have done a lot of research on this topic. Nie Pusheng’s Exploration of Localization of Ethnology and Sociology, Guan Xinrong’s “Contribution of Fei Xiaotong’s Community Research and Methodology from ‘Three Villages in Yunnan,’” Jiang Yingliang’s “Ethnology in Yunnan,” and Xu Ping et al’s Critical Biography of Fei Xiaotong describe in many aspects the brilliant achievements of ethnologists and anthropologists who had the awareness of modern academic groups and actively participated in the social investigation and academic research of ethnic groups in the southwest border areas during the Anti-Japanese War. It is commendable that Fei Xiaotong’s community research method is an important embodiment of the Sinicization of sociological theories. His research on the rural society in southwest frontier by community theory is of great significance to the scientific understanding of China and how to build a good country after the victory of the War. From the perspective of the academic history of anthropology and ethnology, research achievements mainly include Li Lie’s “The Establishment of the Modern Academic Research on the Ethnic Group of Yi: 1928–1949,” Bai Xingfa’s “A Brief Introduction to the Study of the History of Ethnic Group of Yi in the 20th Century,” Wang Jianmin’s History of Chinese Ethnology (1903–1949), Wang Jianmin et al.’s A Centennial Chronicle of Anthropology and Ethnology in China, and Hu Hongbao’s History of Anthropology in China. They describe the development of relevant research from different angles. The research on the southwestern border issues occupies an important position in the history of ethnology and anthropology. The introduction ←7 | 8→of writings, journals, research institutions, and academic groups related to the southwestern border issues during the Republican era has become an important chapter in the academic history of anthropology and ethnology in China today.
2. Research on Journals Involved
During the Republican era, the appearance of a large number of journals on border issues played an obvious role in promoting the study of the subject. Among the numerous journals in the field, the ones that are closely related to southwestern border issues include New Asia Monthly, Xizangan Guide Monthly, The Pioneer of Kham, Southwest Frontier, China’s Frontier, Public Opinion on Frontier Policy, Mongolian-Xizangan Monthly, and so forth. Xirao Jiangcuo’s “Collected Records of Journals on Xizangology” (Sequel 1, Sequel 2), Xu Lihua’s Collected Records of Journals on Xizangology, Zhou Xiaoqing’s “A Brief Account of Journals (on Xizangans) in Xikang in the 1930s and 1940s,” and so forth introduce newspapers and journals related to Xizangology during the Republican era. They covered the life, nature, purpose, columns, and current collection of these journals, providing scholars with guides for relevant information on Xizangology.
Urgumal’s “On Meng Zang Xunkan” outlines the origin of the publication, its main contents, characteristics, and social values, and holds that the publication has important social values in publicizing the Mongolian-Xizangan border crisis, raising public awareness, promoting the Three Principles of the People (Nationalism, Democracy, and the People’s Livelihood), uniting to fight against Japan, and communicating information.
Details
- Pages
- VIII, 296
- Year
- 2022
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781433177781
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781433177798
- ISBN (MOBI)
- 9781433177804
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9781433177774
- DOI
- 10.3726/b16585
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2021 (November)
- Published
- New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Oxford, Wien, 2022. VIII, 296 pp.
