Chinese Visions of World Order

* Book: CHINESE VISIONSOF WORLDORDER. Tianxia, Culture, and World Politics. Ban Wang, editor. Duke University Press, 2017

URL = https://www.academia.edu/34474938/Chinese_Visions_of_World_Order_Introduction

Description

"As China is becoming a major power in the world, thinkers and writers are debating the implications of a Chinese vision of world order. The classical idea of tianxia has become the focus of debate in scholarship and public discourse. Literally meaning “all under heaven,” tianxia refers to a system of governance held together by a regime of culture and values that transcends racial and geo-graphical boundaries (more on this later). This new interest in tianxia calls to mind a similar focus half a century ago. In 'The Chinese World Order: Traditional China’s Foreign Relations', edited by John K. Fairbank, scholars examined imperial China’s trade and ritualistic relations with the adjacent regions of East and Southeast Asia under the rubric of the “Chinese culture area.” In his introduction, Fairbank claims that the Chinese concept and practice of an international order flourished over two millennia “until the Western powers intruded into East Asia in the mid-nineteenth century.” Such investigations of a Chinese world vision, he cautions, would have to confront the challenge of the concepts of nation, sovereignty, and equality of states, which are ill equipped to deal with the body of thought and practice associated with tianxia. 󰀀is challenge persists today and reflects the confrontation of two worldviews. Recent scholarship continues to address the gap between the Western interstate concepts and Chinese world visions. "

Contents

• Chapter 3: 󰀀e Chinese World Order andPlanetary Sustainability. Prasenjit Duara.

• China’s Tianxia Worldings: Socialist and Postsocialist Cosmopolitanisms. Lisa Rofel.