HTOR0002EU China's borderlands

This course focuses on the significance of China’s borderlands and the diverse groups that live there from both a historical and a contemporary perspective. As spaces on the real and conceptual margins of imperial and modern China, borderlands for long have played an important defining role in Chinese history. While China is often perceived by the outside world as a largely homogenous entity with the Tibetans as its most significant internal other, the People’s Republic of China defines itself as a multi-ethnic state with fifty-five groups recognized as ethnic minorities. The socialist state’s recognition of its internal diversity has historical antecedents in imperial China. As part of its self-legitimation, socialist China rejects many aspects of the imperial past while simultaneously making claims on its territorial legacy and perpetuating social, cultural and political approaches to its borderlands inherited from the past. These ideological inconsistencies are also reflected in the changing valorizations of Qing rule throughout the 20^th century both in and outside China, a topic also to be taken up by the course.

In the contemporary context, the course will scrutinize the role played by ethnic minorities situated in the borderlands in defining the majority, despite their demographic insignificance. Economically, the borderlands are rich in natural resources and offer opportunities for transnational trade. Politically, the dangers of secession and invasion require heightened security and border surveillance. Culturally, the people(s) that inhabit the borderlands play a central role in definitions of what it means to be (Han-) Chinese. With an emphasis on the three most significant groups - the Tibetans, the Uyghurs, and the Mongols –  and paying attention to relevant concepts (minority, majority, border, state, etc.), the course explores how Chinese borderlands are shaped by minority policies emanating from the Chinese state, by resource extraction and trade, by the infrastructure of roads and borders, and by historical legacies and ideas about friendship and enmity that inform interactions between Han Chinese and their significant others from the level of intimate encounters to that of international relations.

For students in China Studies, there are additional text reading lessons with Bent Nielsen bentn@hum.ku.dk. For additional text reading in Tibetan language, contact Trine Brox trinebrox@hum.ku.dk.