| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Q. Edward Wang. Inventing China through History: The May Fourth Approach to Historiography. (SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture.) Albany: State University of New York Press. 2001. Pp. xi, 304. Cloth $66.50, paper $22.95.

This useful book outlines the rise of national history as a new intellectual and political discourse in modern China. Q. Edward Wang chronicles this heightened interest along two interrelated pathways. The first is a study of Chinese history from the nineteenth century to the eve of the Communist takeover in 1949, with special attention paid to the May Fourth generation. The second and more important line of discussion is an examination of the controversial relationship between Chinese intellectuals' pursuit of historical writing as a scientific, objective undertaking and their overt nationalistic views of China's past. 1

Like many other academic disciplines in modern China, the author tells us, the study of history was never a theoretical exercise. Instead, it has been a hotly debated political issue as intellectuals, in the face of foreign challenges and aggression, searched anxiously for a new cultural identity, as well as collective dignity in times of crisis. At the heart of the debate, according to Wang, was how to use Western-inspired scientific methods to study Chinese history in line with the ideals of modernity. To that end, Wang contends, intellectuals attempted to reconcile certain major conflicts: tradition versus modernity, the past versus the present, national values versus transnational values, and China's status as an equal partner of the West versus foreign domination—challenging tasks indeed. . . .

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