Series |
Sinica venetiana
Edited book | The Historian’s Gaze
Chapter | Foreign Concessions and Western Impact in the Late Qing Period: Historiographical Approaches and Political Interpretations
Foreign Concessions and Western Impact in the Late Qing Period: Historiographical Approaches and Political Interpretations
Abstract
During the last few decades, the historians of the PRC have adopted different interpretative frameworks in analysing the Chinese encounter/clash with the West: from
the revolutionary paradigm to the modernisation theory, from the ‘impact‑response’ model to the ‘China‑centred approach’. This essay discusses how Chinese scholars have applied such frameworks in assessing the role of foreign concessions established in the treaty ports during the late Qing period: considered as a sign of the imperialist presence by the early generation of Marxist historians, international settlements have been later re‑evaluated in a more positive light, in the context of a lively historiographical debate regarding their unique role in the modernisation of the country. However, the liveliness of the Chinese academic discussion has recently been suppressed due to the campaign against ‘historical nihilism’ launched by President Xi Jinping, which silenced any representation of modern Chinese history that does not adhere to the Party line.
Submitted: July 26, 2022 | Accepted: Sept. 17, 2022 | Published Oct. 11, 2023 | Language: en
Keywords Western impact • Late Qing period • Zujie 租界 (foreign concessions) • Chinese historiography • Lishi xuwuzhuyi 历史虚无主义 (historical nihilism)
Copyright © 2023 Marina Miranda. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-723-4/002
