Academic Nations in China and Japan: Framed by Concepts of Nature, Culture and the Universal / Edition 1

by Margaret Sleeboom

Overview

The descriptions Chinese and Japanese people attribute to themselves and to each other differ vastly and stand in stark contrast to Western perceptions that usually identify a 'similar disposition' between the two nations. Academic Nationals in China and Japan explores human categories, how academics classify themselves and how they divide the world into groups of people.
Margaret Sleeboom carefully analyses the role the nation-state plays in Chinese and Japanese academic theory, demonstrating how nation-centric blinkers often force academics to define social, cultural and economic issues as unique to a certain regional grouping. The book shows how this in turn contributes to the consolidating of national identity while identifying the complex and unintended effects of historical processes and the role played by other local, personal and universal identities which are usually discarded.
While this book primarily reveals how academic nations are conceptualized through views of nature, culture and science, the author simultaneously identifies comparable problems concerning the relation between social science research and the development of the nation state. This book will appeal not only to Asianists but also to those with research interests in Cultural Studies and Sinology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415315456
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/20/2003
Series:	Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1490L (what's this?)

About the Author

Margaret Sleeboom teaches anthropology at Amsterdam University and is a Research Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies.

Table of Contents

Part I - Framing the Nation 1. Introduction: Framing the Nation in China and Japan 2. The Power of National Symbols: The Might of a Chinese Dragon 3. The Coherent Force of Struggle and Diversity in Chinese Nationalism Part II - Group Categorization 5. Culturalist Categorization 6. Global Categorization Part III - Group Framing Habits and Strategies 7. Grouping 8. Framing the Nation in the Short History of the International research Centre for Japanese Culture (Nichibunken, 1987 - ) 9. Nation-Centred Political Strategies in Academic Thought, Examples from China and Japan 10. Nation Framing as an Academic Strategy in the PRC 11. Core Themes and an Outlook on Future Research

Editorial Reviews

'This volume is an important addition to a series of meta-discourses on cultural nationalism in China and Japan as practised in the last decade or so.' - Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

From the Publisher