Boundaries and Beyond : China's Maritime Southeast in Late Imperial Times / Ng Chin-keong.

Part One: Maritime East Asia in Historical Perspective -- 1. Commodity and Market: Structure of the Long-distance Trade in the East Asian Seas and Beyond Prior to the Early Nineteenth Century 3 -- Part Two: Between "Us" and "Them" -- 2. Maritime Frontiers, Territorial Expansion and Haifang (Coastal Defense) during the Late Ming and High Qing -- 3. Trade, the Sea Prohibition and the "Folangji", 1513-50 -- 4. Treaties, Politics and the Limits of Local Diplomacy in Fuzhou in the Early 1850s -- 5. "Shooting the Eagle": Lin Changyi's Agony in the Wake of the Opium War -- 6. Information and Knowledge: Qing China's Perceptions of the Maritime World in the Eighteenth Century -- Part Three: Pushing the Traditional Boundaries -- 7. The Changing Landscape in Rural South Fujian in Late-Ming Times: A Story of the "Little People" (1) -- 8. Gentry-Merchants and Peasant-Peddlers in Offshore Trading Activities, 1522-66: A Story of the "Little People" (2) -- 9. Managing Maritime Affairs in Late-Ming Times -- 10. Liturgical Services and Business Fortunes: Chinese Maritime Merchants in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries -- 11. The Amoy Riots of 1852: Coolie Emigration and Sino-British Relations -- Part Four: Transcending Borders -- 12. Expanding Possibilities: Revisiting the Min-Yue Junk-trade Enterprise on the China Coast and in the Nanyang during the Eighteenth to the Mid-nineteenth Centuries -- 13. The Case of Chen Yilao: Maritime Trade and Overseas Chinese in Qing Policies, 1717-54 -- 14. "Are These Persons British or Chinese Subjects?": Legal Principles and Ambiguities Regarding the Status of the Straits Chinese as Revealed in the Lee Shun Fah Affair in Amoy, 1847.

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Using the concept of boundaries, physical and cultural, to understand the development of China's maritime southeast in late Imperial times, these linked essays by a senior scholar challenge the usual readings of Chinese history from the centre. The book begins with the boundaries between "us" and "them", Chinese and other, during this period, including the rise of state systems. It looks at the challenges to such demarcations posed by movements of people, goods and ideas across maritime East Asia and the broader Asian Seas, and builds a fresh understanding of China's boundaries. Of interest to students of migration, of Chinese history, and of relations between China and its region, Ng's analysis provides crucial background to understanding China within Asia's maritime world. The result is a novel way of approaching Chinese history, argued from a fresh perspective on China's relations with neighbouring territories, and of the nature of tradition and its persistence in a changing world.

In English.

Description based on print version record.