In Conversation with Dr. Xu Guoqi (University of Hong Kong, History), author of "The Idea of China: A Contested History" (Harvard, 2026)
In Conversation with Dr. Xu Guoqi (University of Hong Kong, History), author of "The Idea of China: A Contested History" (Harvard, 2026), Hybrid: CSUSB, SB-216 and on Zoom at https://csusb.zoom.us/j/388207496 Dr. Xu will join via Zoom, and campus attendees are welcome to join us on Zoom or in SB-216.
Dr. Xu Guoqi "was born in China and taught both in Asia and the USA before joining the University of Hong Kong’s History Department. He writes and has published widely in both Chinese and English on various topics... Professor Xu is a leading authority of transnational and shared history of modern China and the world. His research topics include First World War Studies, roles of Sports in China and the world, history of US-China relations, the idea of China, among many others. He has served as a visiting professor at many prestigious institutions such as Harvard University, Yale University, Cambridge University, the University of Melbourne, and King’s College London. He has received many awards such as the Shigemutsu Fellowship for scholarship in global cultural affairs from the Global Culture Center of the Japan Society of Boston and the best book award from the International Society of Olympic Historians." Find his CV at this link.
Dr. Xu's most recent book is The Idea of China: A Contested History, from Harvard University Press (2026).
From the publisher's description: China became a capitalist superpower by investing in globalization. Now that it has established its credentials—and emerged as a major US competitor—its leaders are looking within, focused on suppressing dissent and fostering cohesion. The result has been an increasingly nationalist cultural agenda, celebrating a Chinese identity steeped in the mystique of the Middle Kingdom and nostalgia for heroic twentieth-century resistance. Yet Chinese nationalism, like nationalism everywhere, is fraught. Few Westerners, and even fewer Chinese, recognize that the very idea of China is up for grabs.... In this sweeping history, Xu Guoqi explores the transnational construction of Chineseness. The Idea of China describes an identity constantly under renovation. Through dialogue and confrontation with neighbors, more distant outsiders, and Chinese speakers and writers within the state, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the diaspora, the idea of China has been reshaped repeatedly across time. Even bedrock cultural formations like Confucianism have been reimported to China after their translation in Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and elsewhere. The idea of China has always been and remains a continuing process, invented, subverted, and reinvented to serve the shifting needs of kings and bureaucrats, industrialists and intellectuals, allies and adversaries.... Xu’s chronicle is as provocative as it is rigorous, and his conclusion could hardly be starker: China, fundamentally, is constituted by a shared history. To accept this is to begin moving past the heated great-power rivalries that threaten international peace and stability today.
"In this book, Xu Guoqi deftly follows the many historical twists, turns, and official manipulations that have shaped the historical evolution of the elusive notion of 'being Chinese.' Xu's intellectual acuity and moral clarity make The Idea of China an especially rewarding, essential reading experience." —Orville Schell, coauthor of Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-First Century
This event is free and open to the public. For questions, please contact Jeremy Murray (History), jmurray@csusb.edu. Find past and upcoming events in the Modern China Lecture Series here.