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Shanghai’s peculiar status between 1842 and 1943, its sovereignty degraded in key ways, meant that it gave sanctuary to, and spawned, a wide range of nationalist activity and counteractivity. This essay examines five different layers of activity that the city hosted, and spawned, and explores how they interacted, and touches also on their legacies. It outlines the three key factors that gave shape to the city and to its overt and covert political communities: space, law, and time (or the calendar). The essay explores the interplay of the physical and administrative realms that cut across the city, the restrictions they imposed, and the opportunities they opened up, and shows vividly how nationalism and the urban intersected in this site of multinational imperial power. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1892, Terrien de Lacouperie (1845-1894), professor of Chinese at University College in London, set out to prove that the Chinese migrated from Mesopotamia in prehistoric times. Despite mixed responses from his colleagues, Lacouperie's "Sino-Babylonianism" found its way into China and captured the imagination of Chinese historians from the 1900s to 1930s. Whether they supported or opposed Lacouperie's view, Chinese historians were intrigued by his boldness in linking early China to the global network of trade and cultural exchange. This article examines how Chinese historians adopted, transformed, and appropriated Sino-Babylonianism in their discourse on the nation. It argues that the rise and fall of Sino-Babylonianism coincided with the Chinese perceptions of the world system of nation-states. Sino- Babylonianism was warmly received when the Chinese perceived the world system of nation-states as a hierarchy in temporality, prescribing a process of evolution that all human communities must follow. Sino-Babylonianism was fiercely rejected when the Chinese saw the world system of nation-states as a hierarchy in space, characterized by incessant territorial expansion of imperialist powers. In both instances, Sino-Babylonianism was no longer what Lacouperie had proposed in the late nineteenth century. Rather, it was an important benchmark for the Chinese understanding of the modern global order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Northern Expedition, Guomindang (GMD) policy makers balanced popular anti-imperialism with measures to improve foreign relations. Military pressures meant that top revolutionary leaders could not afford to engage both the warlords and imperialists at the same time, yet rapid advances excited anti-imperialist forces eager to destroy foreign influence once and for all. Opting for security and control, party chiefs restrained popular anti-imperialism. However, when British/warlord collusion produced signs of a Southern Expedition in late December 1926, top party heads released these restraints, encouraging anti-imperialist groups to assail foreign institutions, including the British concessions in Hankou and Jiujiang. Although a great success, the move also caused Britain to initiate troop buildups. Facing new pressures, revolutionary leaders decided to dismantle revolutionary anti-imperialism. In short, mass anti-imperialist organizations were dissolved in April 1927 for practical political reasons that extend beyond factional conflict between the CCP and GMD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary reflects on the contributions of the five principal essayists in this volume of Modern China. It seeks to grasp the role and weight of historical and distinctively Chinese factors in relation to global forces operating in China since the early twentieth century in these macroscopic essays. Building on their contributions, I develop a "globalization paradigm" in which the embeddedness of nations in global discourses and practices are often misrecognized as national and domestic. But while many national practices represent globally familiar reactions to recognized global tendencies, several of these essays help us to identify often unarticulated historical tendencies and emergent practices, including those from the Chinese socialist experience. They suggest ways in which Chinese and global practices become intertwined, as for instance adaptations of the Qing imperial idea to the current day. These practices not only make China different from other nations, but also have the potential to make a difference in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]