Global History in China and the Concept of a Chinese Way of Thinking

TY - JOUR

T1 - Global History in China and the Concept of a Chinese Way of Thinking

AU - Brown, Kerry

PY - 2025/12/19

Y1 - 2025/12/19

N2 - Xin Fan’s work, Global History in China, sits next to a study he produced previously on the research, understanding and significance of global history studies in China through the twentieth century.Footnote1 In looking at the ways in which Chinese from 1900 understood both the world and the role of their country and culture in that world, he has mined a rich seam of material. While giving a focal point by which to analyse how the Chinese engaged with processes of modernity originating outside the country from the nineteenth century, at heart, these books look at the fundamental question of knowledge. Were there truly, as many Chinese intellectuals believed (along with many outside of China, acting as observers) different ways for them to know and understand the world and themselves, ones which only they subscribed to? Was the project they were engaged in as the outside world became a bigger and stronger presence in their lives, actually one of being slowly assimilated to modes and techniques of thinking that were universal, global, and which had to be imported into China and overrode these ones that already existed indigenously? Or was it a more complex process of interaction, partial assimilation, resistance, and finally, the creation of something hybrid and validly different?

AB - Xin Fan’s work, Global History in China, sits next to a study he produced previously on the research, understanding and significance of global history studies in China through the twentieth century.Footnote1 In looking at the ways in which Chinese from 1900 understood both the world and the role of their country and culture in that world, he has mined a rich seam of material. While giving a focal point by which to analyse how the Chinese engaged with processes of modernity originating outside the country from the nineteenth century, at heart, these books look at the fundamental question of knowledge. Were there truly, as many Chinese intellectuals believed (along with many outside of China, acting as observers) different ways for them to know and understand the world and themselves, ones which only they subscribed to? Was the project they were engaged in as the outside world became a bigger and stronger presence in their lives, actually one of being slowly assimilated to modes and techniques of thinking that were universal, global, and which had to be imported into China and overrode these ones that already existed indigenously? Or was it a more complex process of interaction, partial assimilation, resistance, and finally, the creation of something hybrid and validly different?

KW - China

KW - Global History

KW - Intellectual History

M3 - Review article

SN - 2380-1883

VL - Special Issue

SP - 1

EP - 7

JO - Global Intellectual History

JF - Global Intellectual History

M1 - 1

ER -