New Books in History Guoqi Xu, "The Idea of China: A Contested History" (Harvard UP, 2026)
Mar 8, 2026
Xu Guoqi, historian of modern China and founder of the Institute of Transnational History of China, explores who and what counts as China. He discusses sports and transnational identities, contested national narratives, shared-history methodology, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and how personal lives reshape ideas of nationhood.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Athletes Reveal Transnational Chinese Identity
- Xu Guoqi uses sports figures like Eileen Gu, Yao Ming, and Lang Ping to trace shifting ideas of Chinese identity across borders.
- He recounts Hong Kong players representing China in 1936 and modern athletes switching national affiliations to show long-standing transnational Chineseness.
China As A Transnationally Constructed Idea
- Xu argues the idea of China is fragmented historically and formed through transnational exchange rather than a single continuous national story.
- He traces modern concepts like nation, civilization, and sports as imports (often via Japan, Russia, or the West) that reshaped Chinese self-definition.
Shared History Explains Modernizing Choices
- Shared history studies cross-border movement of people, goods, and ideas to reveal how Chinese modernity formed after 1895.
- Xu uses adoption of the Olympics and republicanism as examples of external remedies to China's 'sick man' image.
