Bring Nanyang to China: Anti-Colonialism, Pan-Asianism, and Su Manshu's Narrative of Extraterritorial Nationalism

Abstract

Through a close reading of Su Manshu’s 蘇曼殊 political editorial “Talk about Nanyang” (Nanyang hua, 南洋話), this paper would like to take Su’s concern for Nanyang and overseas Chinese as an example to unearth late Qing intellectual’s political appropriation of the Chinese diaspora for varying ideological proposals whilst investigating how Nanyang was deployed as a metaphor of anti-colonialism in Chinese intellectuals’ Pan-Asianist epistemology. 

Presenter Biography

Yuji Xu is pursuing her Ph.D. degree at the City University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include Chinese political and intellectual history, modern Chinese literature, visual culture, the history of Manchukuo, and modern Chinese Buddhist history. Currently, Yuji Xu works on the project titled “Buddhism and the Late Qing Revolution: Centered on Su Manshu and His Circle.”