Few would question the role that foreign imperialism has played in shaping modern Chinese nationalism. Yet, this nationalism was also formed in dialogue with a more familiar, internal Other - the so-called barbarians of imperial China. By de-centering the nation-state, Reconfiguring Chinese Nationalism explores the role of the frontier and its indigenes in fashioning the contours, boundaries, and meaning of modern Chinese identity. Leibold argues that the rugged and sparsely populated frontier regions of the Qing empire proved central rather than peripheral to the process of revolution in modern China. He explores some of the key political and discursive strategies adopted by the Republican state in constructing a more inclusive myth of national belonging, providing important new insights into how China was able to successfully navigate the transition from empire to nation without following other Old World empires into a destructive implosion of competing ethnic sovereignties.

From Empire to Nation: The Bounding of the Chinese Geo-body
PART I: STRATEGIES OF POLITICAL INTERVENTION
Borderlands of State Power: The Nationalists and the Frontier Question
Domesticating Minzu: The Communists and the National Question
PART II: NARRATIVES OF CULTURAL INNOVATION
From the Yellow Emperor to Peking Man: The Nationalists and the Construction of the Zhonghua minzu
Han Man's Burden: The Communists and the Construction of the Zhonghua minzu

JAMES LEIBOLD is Lecturer in Asian Studies, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia