Political Strategies of Identity Building in Non-Han Empires in China

Arising from a conference held in Munich in June 2012, this volume focuses on processes of negotiation as the main strategy of identity-building and proposes the discussion of two vital and related issues for the study of non-Han rule: the problem of textual sources and the reading of these dynasties outside the borders of Chinese culture. The book aims to analyze the changes certain periods of non-Han rule brought to private and public sectors in several regions of Central and East Asia, and to understand the process of identity construction of non-Han dynasties in China and its use for political purposes. Ten essays are divided into three parts: Fan and Han; conquer and govern; sinicization and nativistic movement?; characteristic elements in the process of identity building in Central Asia; the borders of rebellion; Muslim memories of Yuan-Ming transition in Southeast China; war letters; reactive thrust to sinicization by Manchu officials of the Early Qing Dynasty; on the divergent implications of archery; grass-root official in the ideological battlefield. Annotation c2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)