The reception of the “New Qing History” in China: confrontation between global and nationalist historical narratives

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore various tensions related to the diffusion and reception of the New Qing History (NQH) in China, and more specifically, it aims at underlying a recurrent tension within the core of this debate, between a Global and a Nationalist historical narrative.

Design/methodology/approach

The author’s focus is to analyze various texts published in China between 2006 and 2018.

Findings

The author argues that the intensity of the current debate is partly related on the one hand, to the fact that NQH undermines various aspects of China’s Nationalist teleology and territorial claims and, on the other hand, to the basic difficulty of accepting the coexistence of various historical representations that are risking to weaken contemporary’s justifications of its rising schemes.

Originality/value

The text presents an original reading of some important issues raised by the NQH debate.

Citation

Déry, C. (2020), "The reception of the “New Qing History” in China: confrontation between global and nationalist historical narratives", Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 167-178. https://doi.org/10.1108/STICS-04-2020-0013