| Contents |
Introduction : Pan-Asianism in the short twentieth century -- Asia as pharmakon : the early constitution of Asia as resistance -- The critique of linear time : Pan-Asianism in early twentieth-century China -- Asia as anticapitalist utopia : Ōkawa Shūmei's critique of political modernity -- Takeuchi Yoshimi, part I : rethinking China as political subjectivity -- Takeuchi Yoshimi, part II : Pan-Asianism, revolutionary nationalism, and war memory -- Wang Hui : contemporary Pan-Asianist in China? -- Epilogue : Pan-Asianism, the Chinese Revolution, and global moments. |
| Abstract |
"With Xi Jinping's project to revive the ancient Silk Road for the contemporary era, new analyses of pan-Asianism have proliferated. Most of these narratives focus especially on the "rise of China" as the natural leader of new capitalist bloc, foretelling a shift of power from the West to the East. What these approaches lack, however, is any historical grounding in the thought of influential twentieth-century pan-Asianists. Viren Murthy explores the writings and specific historical contexts of key pan-Asianist intellectuals in Japan, China, and India from the early 1900s to the present to clarify how current discourses distort the very foundations of pan-Asianism. At the heart of this thinking was the notion of a unity of Asian nations, of weak nations becoming powerful, and of the Third World confronting the "advanced world" on equal terms. But there was more: pan-Asianists envisioned a future beyond both imperialism and capitalism. That the resurgence of pan-Asianist discourse has emerged alongside the dominance of capitalism, Murthy argues, signals a profound misunderstanding"-- Provided by publisher. |
