China The Pessoptimist Nation

The rise of China presents a long-term challenge to the world not only economically, but politically and culturally. Callahan meets this challenge in China: The Pessoptimist Nation by using new Chinese sources and innovative analysis to see how Chinese people understand their new place in the world. To chart the trajectory of its rise, the book shifts from examining China's national interests to exploring its national aesthetic. Rather than answering the standard social science question "what is China?" with statistics of economic and military power, this book asks "when, where, and who is China?" to explore the soft power dynamics of China's identity politics. China: The Pessoptimist Nation shows how the heart of Chinese foreign policy is not a security dilemma, but an identity dilemma. Through careful analysis, Callahan charts how Chinese identity emerges through the interplay of positive and negative feelings in a dynamic that intertwines China's domestic and international politics. China thus is the pessoptimist nation where national security is closely linked to nationalist insecurities. Callahan concludes that this interactive view of China's pessoptimist identity means that we need to rethink the role of the state and public opinion in Beijing's foreign policy-making.

Figure List. Preface. Acknowledgments. 1. Introduction: Soft Power, Pessoptimism and the Rise of China. 2. When is China? (I): Patriotic Education and the Century of National Humiliation. 3. When is China? (2): Producing and Consuming National Humiliation Days. 4. Where is China? The Cartography of National Humiliation. 5. Who is China? (1): Foreign Brothers and Domestic Strangers. 6. Who is China? (2): Trauma, Community and Gender in Sino-Japanese Relations. 7. Conclusion: How To Be Chinese in the Twenty-First Century. Character list. Index.

William A. Callahan's recent publications include Cultural Governance and Resistance in Pacific Asia (2006) and Contingent States: Greater China and Transnational Relations (2004). He is Professor of International Politics and China Studies at the University of Manchester, and Co-Director of the British Inter-university China Center, Oxford.