CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Chen, Xingtong |
|---|---|
| Title | Go to the borderland: how did young travelers engage in nation-state building during the borderland expedition after the imperial period? |
| Summary | When the Qing dynasty was overthrown, the primary problem facing the Republican government was how to inherit an imperial legacy but shed its essence on the geographic basis of the Qing dynasty, especially considering the unfamiliar borderland in the west part of China. At this time, a group of Western-educated young travelers delved into these regions in an attempt to contribute their own imagination and suggestions for a novel nation-state. In contrast to the understanding of travel as leisure or lifestyle, the travelers had strong political ambitions. In order to gear ethnic integration up and construct a solid nation of Zhonghuaminzu, they familiarized the borderland, where it used to be an exotic terrain, and strongly promoted the merits of ethnic minorities, shaping them as modern citizens with a progressive image. Meanwhile, from the practical end, they investigated in detail the local resources and weaknesses, then proposed solutions for state-building. Why did travel become a political engagement and how did the travelers engage in the construction of the nation and the state? How does the borderland occupied by the ethnic minorities fit into a unified historical narrative? In this process, how did nation-building go hand in hand with state-building and the modernization blueprint? By making use of the travelogues and diaries of the borderland expeditions during the Republic of China, this paper argues that Zhonghuaminzu has been shaped in pragmatic ways from economic community to political community in accordance with state-building, and the sentiment of nationalism in a world in turmoil accelerated the completion of this process. Also, the portrayal of border travel is a more popular form of communication. Facilitated by print capitalism, it has witnessed a new kind of political engagement of the young elites during the transition from empire to nation-state. |
| Supervisor | Shaw, Charles D; Sawada, Yukari |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/chen_xingtong.pdf |
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