Discourses of Weakness in Modern China: Volume 1

From the time of Chinas defeat in the Sino-Japanese war of 189495 until the 1930s, the assumption that China was a weak state dominated political discourse in China and beyond. In those discussions, China was seen as lacking competitiveness in a world that was increasingly being understood in harsh Darwinian terms. Aiming to better understand contemporary Chinas self-image and identity, this volume traces both the emergence of the narrative of Chinas alleged national ruin and the discursive construction of China as the Sick Man of East Asia.