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Noriko KANAHARA, Embracing ‘Asia’ in China and Japan: Asianism Discourse and Contest for Hegemony, 1912–1933, Social Science Japan Journal, Volume 24, Issue 2, Summer 2021, Pages 419–421, https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyab012
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Extract
This book provides a nuanced view on how Japanese and Chinese thinkers, activists, and state officials, discussed Asianism in the early 1910s through the early 1930s. Through his analysis of various sources, ranging from newspapers, magazines, and books, Weber reveals diverse conceptions of Asianism, ‘a key concept with explicit political connotations around which a dispute over the significance of “Asia” evolved’ (5). Weber focuses on the often-overlooked period of 1912–1933 and argues that this period was ‘an important turning point of “Asia” discourse’ (2), because by ‘the late 1920s, a great variety of conceptions of Asianism had emerged which terminologically and conceptually paved the way for the appropriation form above of ‘Asia’ discourse from the early 1930s onwards’ (1–2). By revealing the diverse conceptions of Asianism in the prewar period, Weber attempts to go beyond scholars who classify the prewar interests in Asianism in dichotomies, such as East versus West, imperialist versus anti-imperialist, and Japanese versus Chinese.
