Locality and Local Gazetteers in the Republic

A Case for the Continuity of Spatial Order

Bibliographic Data

ID21877908
AuthorsYongtao Du (0000-0001-6712-1104, Oklahoma State University Oklahoma City, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume7
Issue1
Pages125-155
Publication date2023-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Chinese History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2059-1632 • E-ISSN: 2059-1640
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/jch.2021.45
OpenAlexW4226158044
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited9

The way late imperial political elites in China positioned themselves in the tianxia —their life world—can be described as a balance between polity and locality, which was often accompanied by an enduring sense of local identity. This article argues that despite the fall of the tianxia concept in modern China, the age-old locality–polity relationship and the elite local identity did not disappear. Taking the flourishing local gazetteer production of the Republican era as a case, I suggest that instead of suppressing locality, the crisis of the polity and the coming of the nation-state in China brought it more to the foreground. The decline of locality in China's political culture occurred only after the communist takeover. The study makes use of the Local Gazetteer Research Tools (LoGaRT) developed by Max Planck Institute for the History of Sciences

Aesthetics · China · Economics · Economy · Elite · Flourishing · Geography · Locality · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Polity · Sociology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law

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