Post-modernist/ Post-colonialist Nation- alism and the Historiography of China: The Paradox of the Happy Minnows

Title

Post-modernist/ Post-colonialist Nation- alism and the Historiography of China: The Paradox of the Happy Minnows

Author

Thomas H. C. Lee

Page

89-118

DOI

Abstract

　　The title of this paper is taken from Zhuang-zi, who was an optimistic skeptic, con- stantly at play with paradoxes. Of them, the most famous is his debate with his friend, Hui Shi, about how a human could know that the minnows were happy, dashing to and fro in the stream under the bridge. The minnows were happy, perhaps, but were more likely laughing at the confidence of the two apparently intelligent thinkers. Both of them believed that they had the answer.
　　The post-modernist would also laugh at the same kind of self-confidence that there is an absolute answer to every question, and that the answer should be at once universal and logical. Whereas the post-modernist position often leads to so-called “culture wars”, its stance is actually one that is inquisitive, humble, forward-looking, and democratic. Unfortunately, when such attitudes are taken over to interpret the “other”, the “other” often uses the open attitude to subvert and to seek for hegemony. They do so by way of constructing a new narrative, masquerading it as not merely one of many, but the unique, way to “truth”. Post-colonialist historiography has powerfully demonstrated how this strategy can work.
　　In recent historiography of China, the same tendency has worked to the advantage of the Chinese nationalist historians, an advantage the old argument that “China was different or unique” often was not able to achieve. In short, the old nationalist historiog- raphy often used the post-modernist and post-colonialist relativism to seek for promi- nence, to claim its legitimate position of the “other”, and then as first among the equals. Some Western historians of China are also criticizing the modernist project, proclaiming that the historiography of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with its linear time concept and idea of progress, has not only distorted the understanding of China’s past, but also prevented the Chinese from finding value and meaning in their own history. The post-modernist project paradoxically creates a situation that is actually preventing us from seeing the true picture of China’s past. But then this after all is what post-modernists want, is this not? The minnows should know better.

Keyword

the Asian value, decency, the Enlightenment, hegemony, modernization, mul- tiple modernizations, nationalism, other, post-colonialism, post-modernism, reasonableness

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