| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.3

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Leo K. Shin. The Making of the Chinese State: Ethnicity and Expansion on the Ming Borderlands. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2006. Pp. xxi, 246. $80.00.
Leo K. Shin's book examines interactions between China's imperial center and the southwestern frontier province of Guangxi during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). The book has much to offer to current debates on Chinese ethnicity and identity and also contributes to the growing literatures on frontier policy. Shin's approach is shaped by the conviction that "in order to capture more fully the complexity of the human past, we must approach the formation of identities not as an aside but as an essential component in historical inquiries" (p. xiii). In one respect, the book is less about the Chinese state than about the formation of a Chinese identity, which as Shin demonstrates, evolved continually through ongoing relationships with others.	1
Part of what makes his book so successful may be Shin's willingness and ability to deeply enter his sources, thereby inviting his reader to explore possibilities beyond the dominant model of "acculturation" in frontier history that tends to treat "Han" and "non-Han" as primordial categories. The author demonstrates his familiarity with the literature on ethnicity and frontier studies through the level of sophistication that he brings to the analysis of his sources. Uncluttered with overt debates with his colleagues, his approach allows ample space for his sources to speak and creates an environment in which his reader can begin to "imagine alternative narratives" that address the question of "how China became Chinese" (p. xiii).	. . .

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