Trans-Pacific Interactions: The United States and China, 1880-1950

This book explores particular facets of the history and representation of the Pacific Rim region, fo­cusing on the interactions between the United States and China at the beginning of the twentieth century. It critically examines contemporary discourses on such seemingly recent concepts as transna­tion­alism and cultural citizenship, showing that they can ac­tually be traced much further back, and that they are closely tied to the debates around nationalism, global capitalism, and religion of the time. This series of reflections on political exchanges and conflicts offers a special focus on the cultural - literary, popular, and religious - implications of these interactions.

Table of Contents:
Transnational Nationalisms – China and the United States in a Pacific World. An Introduction; V.Künnemann &  R.Mayer PART I: NATIONALISMS AND CONFIGURATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES The American Dream and Dreams of China: A Transnational Approach to Chinese American History; Y.Chen National Studies and Global Entanglements: The Re-Envisioning of China in the Early Twentieth Century; K.Mühlhahn China in the World: Constructions of a Chinese Identity in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century; N.Spakowski PART II: CHINESE AMERICA, CITIZENSHIP, NATIONALITY, AND THE WORLD Paper Citizens and Biometrical Identification. Immigration, Nationality, and Belonging in Chinese America during the Exclusion Era; R.Mayer Befriending the Yellow Peril: Student Migration and the Warming of American Attitudes towards Chinese, 1905-1950; M.Y.Hsu Between the 'Mountain of Tang' and the 'Adopted Land': The Chinese American Periodical Press and the Emergence of Chinese American Identities in the Face of Exclusion; S.Wong PART III: MISSIONARY INTERVENTIONS: CULTURAL MISSION AND THE INTERNALIZATION OF CHINA, 1830-1950 Christian Mission and the Internationalization of China, 1830-1950; T.Klein Following with bleeding footsteps?' American Missions in China and the (Gendered) Critique of Pearl S. Buck; V.Künnemann The Deserving Heathen: Missionary Ethnography of China and its American Converts; D.Ferens

About the Author :
RUTH MAYER is the Chair of American Studies at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-University in Hanover, Germany.   VANESSA KÜNNEMANN is an Assistant Professor in American Studies at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-University, Germany.

Review :
"The book provides insights into how national and individual identities within both China and the United States were influenced by processes, perceptions, and activities in other countries." - H-Net "This collection complicates our picture of U.S. history by demonstrating the ways in which transnational interactions shaped the dynamics of a society that was influenced by, and defined itself through/against, the trans-Pacific flows of ideas, goods, and people. In this way, Trans-Pacific Interactions fits well into a scholarly debate that attempts to transnationalize U.S. history." - Sebastian Conrad, European University Institute, Florence "Trans-Pacific Interactions reminds us the best scholarship restlessly probes and reframes, defying static fields, separations, and national borders. Chinese studies has never been strictly Chinese, American studies never simply Euro-American, and Chinese-American studies never just of an ethnic group. This is an excellent, forward-thinking colloquy of top scholars contextualized wonderfully by our German colleagues Mayer and Künnemann." - John Kuo Wei Tchen, New York University and Museum of Chinese in America