Comment on Looking Back to Look Forward: Geopolitics, Identity, and Engaging China
D a recent visit to a local bookstore, I stumbled upon a monograph by the Chinese scholar Zhang Weiwei (Zhang, 2012). It would have been easy to overlook among the voluminous literature seeking to make sense of China’s much-debated ascendancy in the international arena. Entitled The China Wave, it follows many other works focusing on the exceptionalism of the Asian state, signaling its upward trajectory as a unique (albeit important) global actor. However, what really attracted my attention was the front cover, which boasts sales of one-half million copies of its Chinese edition, making it one of most popular books in China in 2011. Turning to the preface, the author explains that the book was originally intended for a Chinese audience, and the purpose for translating it is to enable the “West” to “emancipate the mind and learn a little more about or from China’s approach and the Chinese ideas, however extraneous they may appear, for its own benefit” (Zhang, 2012, p. xi). Indeed, in the subsequent pages, Zhang proceeds to qualify his claim; by positing China as a civilizational state amalgamating modern state structures with distinct traditions and features originating from its civilization, Zhang argues that there are eight historically embedded ideas that the state follows in charting its developmental pathway. He concludes that this set of political discourses raises questions about many commonplace assumptions of democracy, good governance, as well as human rights, and that “the West may actually gain from China’s rise of power and ideas, just as many developing or transitional economies have done” (Zhang, 2012, p. ix). Zhang’s thesis confirms John Agnew’s (2012) observation that there has been no lack of voices within China reflecting on the country’s positioning in world politics. Indeed, Zhang’s work seems to fall under Agnew’s narrative of “international relations theory with Chinese characteristics.” Rather than suggesting the existence of a singular Chinese (meta)narrative, Agnew traces the genealogies of four different geopolitical themes prevalent in China, to demonstrate how such (selective) histories and geographies have been revived (at different junctures) to envisage the country’s geopolitical futures. Agnew’s intent is neither to privilege these Chinese accounts as necessarily more authentic nor uphold an essentialist view that there are fundamental ideas intrinsic to the existing Chinese polity (which Zhang’s writings seem to connote). Rather, Agnew’s contribution lies in his exposition of how China’s past has been mobilized by intellectuals and politicians alike to provide justifications for the pursuit of particular foreign policy agendas. Accordingly, as opposed to Zhang’s lofty proclamations of the value of Chinese modes of thinking for different societies, Agnew appears more concerned with gaining insight into the mindsets and practices of these Chinese political actors given China’s status as an emerging world power.
Postcolonial geographies: an exploratory essay
This article is about debates concerning the ‘postcolonial’. The term bears a variety of inter-related sets of meanings. In the first place ‘postcolonial’ has been used in reference to a condition that succeeds colonial rule. But ‘postcolonial’ also signifies a set of theoretical perspectives. Mindful of this diversity, I present a tentative and speculative geography of the varied and complicated senses (and non-senses) of the conditions and approaches purported to be described by the term.
TANZANIA'S NEW POLITICAL REGIONALISM AND INTRODUCTORY GEOGRAPHY'S PORTRAYAL OF SOUTHERN AFRICA
ABSTRACT Regionalism in Tanzania's recent transition to multi-party politics is examined as a means of interrogating themes from political geography as they appear in introductory geography textbooks from North America. The textbooks are used as examples of broader popular perceptions and representations of Southern Africa in North America generally. Although Tanzania would appear from textbooks to have a high potential for divisive regionalism, the evidence from Tanzania itself instead suggests that geography textbooks, like widespread Western media accounts of Southern African politics, can be misleading as sources for interpretive tools about African affairs. Given what these textbooks suggest about Tanzania and Southern Africa, it is apparent that basic ideas conveyed to introductory students in North America, as a subset of the Western public at large, about African political geography require reconsideration, especially given the dramatic decade of transition since 1990.