Sinologism: An Alternative to Orientalism and Postcolonialism

291 Pages·2013·4.699 MB·English

by  Ming Dong Gu

Sinologism
Why, for centuries, have the West and the world continuously produced China
knowledge that deviates from Chinese realities? Why, since the mid- nineteenth
century, have Chinese intellectuals oscillated between commendation and condem-
nation of their own culture, and between fetishization and demonization of all
things Western? And why have some of the world’s wisest thinkers expressed
opinions on Chinese culture, which are simply wrong?
In order to answer these questions, this book explores the process of knowledge
production about China and the Chinese civilization, and in turn provides a critique
of the ways in which this knowledge is formed. Ming Dong Gu argues that the mis-
perceptions and misinterpretations surrounding China and the Chinese civilization
do not simply come from misinformation, biases, prejudices, or political interfer-
ence, but follow certain taken-f or-granted principles that have evolved into a cul-
tural unconscious. Indeed, Gu argues that the conflicting accounts in China–West
studies are the inevitable outcome of this cultural unconscious that constitutes the
inner logic of a comprehensive knowledge system which he terms “Sinologism.”
This book explores Sinologism’s origin, development, characteristics, and inner
logic, and critiques its manifestations in the writings of Chinese, Western, and non-
Western thinkers and scholars, including Montesquieu, Herder, Hegel, Marx,
Weber, Russell, Pound, Wang Guowei, Guo Moruo, Gu Jiegang, Wen Yiduo, and
many others in diverse discip lines from arts and humanities to social sciences. In
doing so, Gu demonstrates why the existing critical models are inadequate for
Chinese materials, and makes a crucial attempt to construct an alternative theory to
Orientalism and postcolonialism for China–West studies and cross-c ultural studies.
Sinologism crosses over the subjects of history, thought, literature, language, art,
archaeology, religion, aesthetics and cultural theory, and will appeal to students
and scholars of East–West studies with a particular focus on China, as well as those
interested in cultural theory more broadly.
Ming Dong Gu is a Distinguished Guest Professor in the Institute for Advanced
Studies of Humanities and Social Sciences at Nanjing University, China, and
Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Texas at Dallas, USA. He
is the author of Chinese Theories of Reading and Writing (2005), Chinese Theories
of Fiction (2006), and Anxieties of Originality: Multiple Approaches to Language,
Literature, and Cultural Studies (in Chinese, 2009).
Routledge contemporary China series
1 Nationalism, Democracy and 8 The Politics of China’s
National Integration in China Accession to the World Trade
Leong Liew and Wang Shaoguang Organization
The dragon goes global
2 Hong Kong’s Tortuous Hui Feng
Democratization
A comparative analysis 9 Narrating China
Ming Sing Jia Pingwa and his fictional world
Yiyan Wang
3 China’s Business Reforms
Institutional challenges in a
10 Sex, Science and Morality in
globalised economy
China
Edited by Russell Smyth and
Joanne McMillan
Cherrie Zhu
11 Politics in China Since 1949
4 Challenges for China’s
Legitimizing authoritarian rule
Development
Robert Weatherley
An enterprise perspective
Edited by David H. Brown and
12 International Human Resource
Alasdair MacBean
Management in Chinese
Multinationals
5 New Crime in China
Jie Shen and Vincent Edwards
Public order and human rights
Ron Keith and Zhiqiu Lin
13 Unemployment in China
6 Non- Governmental Economy, human resources and
Organizations in Contemporary labour markets
China Edited by Grace Lee and
Paving the way to civil society? Malcolm Warner
Qiusha Ma
14 China and Africa
7 Globalization and the Chinese Engagement and compromise
City Ian Taylor
Fulong Wu
15 Gender and Education in China 22 China’s Foreign Trade Policy
Gender discourses and women’s The new constituencies
schooling in the early twentieth Edited by Ka Zeng
century
Paul J. Bailey 23 Hong Kong, China
Learning to belong to a nation
16 SARS Gordon Mathews, Tai- lok Lui, and
Reception and interpretation in Eric Kit-w ai Ma
three Chinese cities
Edited by Deborah Davis and 24 China Turns to Multilateralism
Helen Siu Foreign policy and regional
security
17 Human Security and the Edited by Guoguang Wu and
Chinese State Helen Lansdowne
Historical transformations and the
modern quest for sovereignty 25 Tourism and Tibetan Culture in
Robert E. Bedeski Transition
A place called Shangrila
18 Gender and Work in Urban Åshild Kolås
China
Women workers of the unlucky 26 China’s Emerging Cities
generation The making of new urbanism
Liu Jieyu Edited by Fulong Wu
19 China’s State Enterprise 27 China–US Relations
Reform Transformed
From Marx to the market Perceptions and strategic
John Hassard, Jackie Sheehan, interactions
Meixiang Zhou, Edited by Suisheng Zhao
Jane Terpstra-T ong and
Jonathan Morris 28 The Chinese Party- State in the
21st Century
20 Cultural Heritage Management Adaptation and the reinvention of
in China legitimacy
Preserving the cities of the Pearl Edited by André Laliberté and
River Delta Marc Lanteigne
Edited by Hilary du Cros and
Yok- shiu F. Lee 29 Political Change in Macao
Sonny Shiu- Hing Lo
21 Paying for Progress
Public finance, human welfare and 30 China’s Energy Geopolitics
inequality in China The Shanghai cooperation
Edited by Vivienne Shue and organization and Central Asia
Christine Wong Thrassy N. Marketos
31 Regime Legitimacy in 39 Intellectual Property Rights in
Contemporary China China
Institutional change and stability Politics of piracy, trade and
Edited by Thomas Heberer and protection
Gunter Schubert Gordon Cheung
32 U.S.–China Relations 40 Developing China
China policy on Capitol Hill Land, politics and social
Tao Xie conditions
George C.S. Lin
33 Chinese Kinship
Contemporary anthropological 41 State and Society Responses to
perspectives Social Welfare Needs in China
Edited by Susanne Brandtstädter Serving the people
and Gonçalo D. Santos Edited by Jonathan Schwartz and
Shawn Shieh
34 Politics and Government in
Hong Kong 42 Gay and Lesbian Subculture in
Crisis under Chinese sovereignty Urban China
Edited by Ming Sing Loretta Wing Wah Ho
35 Rethinking Chinese Popular 43 The Politics of Heritage Tourism
Culture in China
Cannibalizations of the Canon A view from Lijiang
Edited by Carlos Rojas and Xiaobo Su and Peggy Teo
Eileen Cheng-y in Chow
44 Suicide and Justice
36 Institutional Balancing in the A Chinese perspective
Asia Pacific Wu Fei
Economic interdependence and
China’s rise 45 Management Training and
Kai He Development in China
Educating managers in a
37 Rent Seeking in China globalized economy
Edited by Tak-W ing Ngo and Edited by Malcolm Warner and
Yongping Wu Keith Goodall
38 China, Xinjiang and Central 46 Patron– Client Politics and
Asia Elections in Hong Kong
History, transition and crossborder Bruce Kam- kwan Kwong
interaction into the 21st century
Edited by Colin Mackerras and 47 Chinese Family Business and the
Michael Clarke Equal Inheritance System
Unravelling the myth
Victor Zheng
48 Reconciling State, Market and 57 China’s Higher Education
Civil Society in China Reform and Internationalisation
The long march towards Edited by Janette Ryan
prosperity
Paolo Urio 58 Law, Wealth and Power in
China
49 Innovation in China Commercial law reforms in
The Chinese software industry context
Shang- Ling Jui Edited by John Garrick
50 Mobility, Migration and the 59 Religion in Contemporary
Chinese Scientific Research China
System Revitalization and innovation
Koen Jonkers Edited by Adam Yuet Chau
51 Chinese Film Stars 60 Consumer- Citizens of China
Edited by Mary Farquhar and The role of foreign brands in the
Yingjin Zhang imagined future China
Kelly Tian and Lily Dong
52 Chinese Male Homosexualities
Memba, Tongzhi and Golden Boy 61 The Chinese Communist Party
Travis S.K. Kong and China’s Capitalist
Revolution
53 Industrialisation and Rural The political impact of the market
Livelihoods in China Lance L. P. Gore
Agricultural processing in Sichuan
Susanne Lingohr- Wolf 62 China’s Homeless Generation
Voices from the veterans of the
54 Law, Policy and Practice on Chinese civil war, 1940s–1990s
China’s Periphery Joshua Fan
Selective adaptation and
institutional capacity 63 In Search of China’s
Pitman B. Potter Development Model
Beyond the Beijing consensus
55 China–Africa Development Edited by S. Philip Hsu,
Relations Suisheng Zhao and Yu- Shan Wu
Edited by Christopher M. Dent
64 Xinjiang and China’s Rise in
56 Neoliberalism and Culture in Central Asia, 1949–2009
China and Hong Kong A history
The countdown of time Michael E. Clarke
Hai Ren
65 Trade Unions in China
The challenge of labour unrest
Tim Pringle
66 China’s Changing Workplace 76 HIV/AIDS in China – The
Dynamism, diversity and disparity Economic and Social
Edited by Peter Sheldon, Determinants
Sunghoon Kim, Yiqiong Li and Dylan Sutherland and
Malcolm Warner Jennifer Y. J. Hsu
67 Leisure and Power in Urban 77 Looking for Work in
China Post- Socialist China
Everyday life in a medium-s ized Governance, active job seekers
Chinese city and the new Chinese labour
Unn Målfrid H. Rolandsen market
Feng Xu
68 China, Oil and Global Politics
Philip Andrews-S peed and 78 Sino- Latin American Relations
Roland Dannreuther Edited by K.C. Fung and
Alicia Garcia-H errero
69 Education Reform in China
Edited by Janette Ryan
79 Mao’s China and the
Sino- Soviet Split
70 Social Policy and Migration in
Ideological dilemma
China
Mingjiang Li
Lida Fan
80 Law and Policy for China’s
71 China’s One Child Policy and
Market Socialism
Multiple Caregiving
Edited by John Garrick
Raising little Suns in Xiamen
Esther C. L. Goh
81 China–Taiwan Relations in a
Global Context
72 Politics and Markets in Rural
Taiwan’s foreign policy and
China
relations
Edited by Björn Alpermann
Edited by C. X. George Wei
73 China’s New Underclass
82 The Chinese Transformation of
Paid domestic labour
Corporate Culture
Xinying Hu
Colin S.C. Hawes
74 Poverty and Development in
China 83 Mapping Media in China
Alternative approaches to poverty Region, province, locality
assessment Edited by Wanning Sun and
Lu Caizhen Jenny Chio
75 International Governance and 84 China, the West and the Myth of
Regimes New Public Management
A Chinese perspective Neoliberalism and its discontents
Peter Kien-H ong Yu Paolo Urio
85 The Lahu Minority in Southwest 88 State–Market Interactions in
China China’s Reform Era
A response to ethnic Local state competition and global
marginalization on the frontier market building in the tobacco
Jianxiong Ma industry
Junmin Wang
86 Social Capital and Institutional
Constraints 89 The Reception and Rendition
A comparative analysis of China, of Freud in China
Taiwan and the US China’s Freudian slip
Joonmo Son Edited by Tao Jiang and
Philip J. Ivanhoe
87 Southern China
Industry, development and 90 Sinologism
industrial policy An alternative to Orientalism and
Marco R. Di Tommaso, postcolonialism
Lauretta Rubini and Ming Dong Gu
Elisa Barbieri
Sinologism
An alternative to Orientalism and
postcolonialism
Ming Dong Gu
First published 2013
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© 2013 Ming Dong Gu
The right of Ming Dong Gu to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
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ISBN: 978-0-415-62654-5 (hbk)
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