China Reborn, 1895–1912

Abstract China Reborn, 1895–1912 challenges the master narrative of modern Chinese history, which has long framed the fall of the Qing empire and the rise of the Republic of China as the inevitable triumph of Chinese nationalism. This nationalist narrative obscures an intricate reality: many of the so-called nationalists were simultaneously localists, whose political pursuits were rooted in the specific crises of their native places and designed to redress them. Nor does nationalist teleology adequately explain why localism—so often a force that toppled old dynasties only to install new ones—suddenly turned against dynastic rule altogether and championed a republic instead. Departing from the familiar sweep of national history, this book proposes a trialectic framework—local, national, and transnational—to reinterpret the transformation of the Qing empire. It shows how a new China was born out of the dynamic interplay among localism, nationalism, and imperialism. Combining a social history of the activities of Qing elites educated in Meiji Japan and an intellectual history of their localist pursuits, it illuminates how Japanese knowledge crossed national boundaries to ignite local changes that ultimately remade the Qing empire. Through their experiences abroad, these elites reinforced native-place bonds, deepened local sentiment, and embraced new localist visions of China. Drawing on Japanese knowledge, they formulated four lines of localist strategies and took pains to translate them into practice in an effort to reconfigure the Qing empire.