"This slim volume is an outstanding book on nationalism and Chinese foreign policy. Highly recommended
for upper-division undergraduate collections and above."
--Choice
"...Zheng's new book has succeeded admirably in dissecting and analyzing the many dimensions of contemporary
Chinese nationalism...the intricate and multilayered way Zheng deals with the subject has yielded a richly detailed
synthesis of the subject. The book is a major contribution to our understanding of China's new nationalism in the
1990s."
--Canadian Journal of Political Science
"Zheng Yongnian has provided us with an excellent road map for the extraordinary range of opinions among today's
Chinese intellectuals concerning Chinese nationalism, external threats to China, and China as a threat to others
it offers an excellent presentation of current perspectives on the forces that are shaping Chinese national identity
and the debate over the role of the Chinese state. It is also a reminder that even some of China's leading intellectuals
do not see Western civilization as benign or Western states as innocent in their intentions toward China."
--China Review International, Vol. 7
Submitted By Publisher, November, 2003
Summary
This book explores the revival of Chinese nationalism in the 1990s, and analyses the ways in which the West
deals with this phenomenon. Yongnian Zheng discusses the complicated nature of China's new nationalism and presents
the reader with a very different picture to that portrayed in Western readings of Chinese nationalism. He argues
that China's new nationalism has been a reaction to changes in the country's international circumstances and can
be regarded as a 'voice' over the existing unjustified international order. Zheng shows that the present Chinese
leadership is pursuing strategies not to isolate China, but to integrate it into the international community. Based
on the author's extensive research in China, the book provides a set of provocative arguments against prevailing
Western attitudes to and perceptions of China's nationalism.
Table of Contents
1. Discovering Chinese nationalism in China
2. Nationalism and Statism: decentralization vs centralization
3. Identity crisis, the New Left and anti-West sentiment
4. The clash of civilizations? Confucian vs Christian civilizations
5. "Comprehensive national power": China's perception of National interest
6. The politics of official discourse against "anti-China" theories
7. Identity transition and Chinese power: whither China's new nationalism?
