The Invention of China

“[A] smart take on modern Chinese nationalism.”—Foreign Policy

“A very readable book that will educate the general reader and provide experienced sinologists with a bevy of insights and fresh perspectives on a growing military and economic power.”—Walter Clemens, New York Journal of Books

“This captivating volume by Hayton (Chatham House and BBC World News) seeks to illustrate how China’s reworking of the past not only helped to justify its right to rule a century ago, but also motivates its policies today. . . . Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.”—S. K. Ma, Choice

“China is never out of the news, but we need to stop and think why our conventional wisdom about the country may need rethinking. Whether it’s the name of the country itself, or the maps that underpin its territorial claims, Hayton is a sure, informed and often witty guide to understanding how this major state came to imagine itself.”—Rana Mitter, author of China’s Good War

“Immensely readable. . . . As China becomes increasingly nationalistic and aggressive, how Party leaders view their national identity and destiny grows ever more critical. This is a valuable porthole into that important subject.”—Orville Schell, author of Wealth and Power

“A remarkable tour de force. This prodigious, highly readable book enhances our understanding of the origins and possible future of China’s ethnic conflicts, territorial disputes, and great power aspirations.”—Suisheng Zhao, University of Denver

“Engaging. . . . Historians, poets, film-makers inside and outside China have built, demolished and rebuilt a multidimensional country/culture object that is more shaped by than shaping the aspirations and anxieties of humanity.”—Pamela Kyle Crossley, author of The Wobbling Pivot, China since 1800

“Hayton’s work challenges readers to remember that ideas defining ‘China’ today are no more exceptional than those underpinning any state or nation. Assertions about rising from humiliation and immutable positions existing ‘since ancient times’ are in fact creations of an ongoing, modernist state-building project.”—Ja Ian Chong, assistant professor, National University of Singapore