Constructing Chinese Asianism: Intellectual Writings on East Asian Regionalism (1896-1924) by Craig Anthony Smith B.A. (Hons) University of Alberta, 2004 M.A. University of Alberta, 2007 M.A. National Chung Cheng University, 2010 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (History) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) September 2014 © Craig Anthony Smith, 2014 Abstract Until recent decades, historians of modern East Asia generally considered Asianism to be an imperialistic ideology of militant Japan. Although the term and its concept were certainly used in this way, especially in the 1930s and 1940s, earlier proponents of Asianism looked upon it as a very real strategy of uniting Asian nations to defend against Western imperialism. This study investigates Chinese intellectuals’ discussions of Asianism from just before the reforms of 1898 to Sun Yat-sen’s famous speech on Asianism in 1924, considering calls for regionalism in their intellectual and historical contexts. Utilizing both published and unpublished sources, I first show that there were many Chinese debates on Asianism, before exposing the convoluted relationship between regional and national identities at this crucial point in the construction of the Chinese nation. In the early twentieth century, Chinese intellectuals struggled to define both their nation and their region through a variety of relationships which posited the imperialist West as “other.” Naturally, in the construction of these political and cultural identities, intellectuals’ writings on nation, race and civilization created overlaps which are still evident in understandings of Asia and China today. ii Preface This dissertation is an original, unpublished, and independent work by the author, Craig A Smith. It is the product of research conducted at archives and libraries in China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Canada. All images used in this dissertation are from the public domain unless stated otherwise. iii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. viii Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 Literature Review ............................................................................................................... 9 Contextualizing China and Japan: Nations and Empires ................................................. 21 Chapter Breakdown .......................................................................................................... 24 Part I: Chinese Reformers Encounter Asianism ................................................................... 28 Chapter I: Lips and Teeth: Pro-Japanese Reformers on Empire and Federation, 1896 - 1898 .............................................................................................................................................. 29 Introduction: The Reformers’ Strategic Turn towards Japan ............................................ 32 Institutions Facilitate the Entry of Asianist Principles and Vocabulary into China .......... 35 The Translation of Pro-Japanese News ............................................................................ 45 Chinese Voices at The Chinese Progress Promote Alliance with Japan ........................... 52 Reformers Become Interested in Early Japanese Asianism.............................................. 58 The Complications of Translating Tarui Asianism ........................................................... 64 Kang Youwei and Alliance with Japan ............................................................................. 72 Kang Youwei’s Reformers Petition for Federation with Japan ........................................ 75 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 80 Chapter II: Chariot and Sidecar: Confucian Asianism in Japan’s Chinatowns .................... 82 The Reformers and the Tōa Dōbunkai ............................................................................. 85 The Establishment of the Datong Schools ........................................................................ 90 The Need for the Datong School in Yokohama ................................................................ 92 Expansion ......................................................................................................................... 95 Sino-Japanese Elite Cooperation and the Datong School ................................................ 98 Working with the Asianists ............................................................................................... 98 Yamamoto Ken ............................................................................................................... 101 Xu Qin: the Primary Educator at the Datong School ..................................................... 106 iv The Datong School and Layers of Identity ..................................................................... 109 The Students of the Datong School and Their Influence ................................................ 113 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 118 Part II: Chinese Intellectuals’ Rejection of Japanese Asianism .......................................... 120 Chapter III: Same Script, Same Race: The Ambiguity of a Racial Identity ....................... 121 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 121 Late-Nineteenth Century Chinese Writings on Race ...................................................... 125 Race and Race War ......................................................................................................... 126 Yellow Peril .................................................................................................................... 129 Subverting the Yellow Peril and Taking Pride in Race ................................................... 132 Tongzhong and Yizhong ................................................................................................. 135 Anti-Manchu Nationalism and Race .............................................................................. 138 Liu Shipei ....................................................................................................................... 141 Chen Tianhua, the beginning of the People’s News and the end of the “Golden Decade” ........................................................................................................................................ 144 The Revolutionaries are introduced to India .................................................................. 151 The Asiatic Humanitarian Brotherhood .......................................................................... 156 Race and Revolution ....................................................................................................... 161 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 164 Chapter IV: Asia for the Asians: Translating Asianism during World War I, 1914-1918 ... 168 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 168 The Great War in the Eastern Miscellany ....................................................................... 170 The Eastern Miscellany and Japanese Connections under Du Yaquan .......................... 173 Du Yaquan and Civilization ............................................................................................ 181 Thesis, Antithesis: Establishing Dichotomies, Defining China and the East ................. 185 Conflict: A Return to Race War or Clash of Civilizations .............................................. 191 Synthesis ......................................................................................................................... 195 Translating Asianism ...................................................................................................... 198 The Monroe Doctrine and Pan-Americanism ................................................................. 199 Greater Asianism and Its Translations ............................................................................ 201 Kodera’s Greater Asianism ............................................................................................. 204 The Introduction of Kokuryūkai “Asianism” ................................................................. 207 v New Asianism and New New Asianism ......................................................................... 210 Conclusion 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