To expand our understanding of global imperialism in the pre-modern and modern eras, this workshop will use the case study of Taiwan to explore how the frameworks of comparative colonial studies and frontier studies differ in their interpretations of Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) expansionism. How do these divergent frameworks produce competing notions of indigeneity, for example, or of territorial sovereignty? In what ways does the notion of “Chinese colonialism” (or “imperialism”) contest historical narratives of European exceptionalism? To consider the contemporary relevance of these historiographical questions, we will also discuss whether academic resistance to the idea of “Chinese colonialism” forecloses critiques of current PRC territorial claims or precludes the discourse of indigeneity in contemporary China. Workshop participants will be asked to reflect on how an understanding of Qing expansionism might inform their own research.

Recommended Reading:

• Mark Elliott, “The Case of the Missing Indigene: Debate Over a ‘Second-Generation’ Ethnic Policy,” The China Journal, vol. 73 (Jan. 2015): 186-213.
• James A. Millward, “The Qing and Twentieth-Century Chinese Diversity Regimes.” In Andrew Phillips and Christian Reus-smit eds. Culture and Order in World Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020: 71–92.
• Peter C. Perdue, “Comparing Empires: Manchu Colonialism,” International History Review, 20.2 (June 1998): 255-62.
• Emma J. Teng, Taiwan’s Imagined Geography: Chinese Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures, 1683-1895, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center/dist. Harvard University Press, pp. 1-30, and 247–258.