[Peace-discuss] China is near

[C. G. Estabrook]

Sinomania
Perry Anderson
LRB 32:2 · 28 January 2010

"...In the 19th century, Europe looked to America as the future, if one still 
quite some way off. In the 21st century, the West looks towards China in 
something of the same way. So far, certainly, no Tocqueville of the East has 
appeared. Is what he once achieved repeatable? There is plenty of time yet. But 
it is unlikely that /Democracy in America/ will find its successor, wherever 
else it might, in any /Modernity in China/."

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n02/perry-anderson/sinomania

...Ostensibly this London Review of Books essay is simply an assessment of a few 
books, including When China Rules the World, one of the most talked-about 2009 
publications on the PRC. It is also, though, a thoughtful reflection on 
long-term trends in Western thinking about China, highlighting the swings 
between and occasional combining of "Sinophobia" and "Sinomania" (a term 
Anderson uses where some others might use Sinophilia). Particularly astute is 
the claim that When China Rules the World, despite its seemingly Sinophobic 
title, has many passages that veer toward Sinomania. The same mix of concern 
about and amazement at the country's rapid rise can be seen in other recent 
writings on the PRC, including Niall Ferguson's late 2010 Wall Street Journal 
op-ed "In China's Orbit" and is likely to continue to influence publications in 
the months to come...

http://www.thechinabeat.org/?p=3026


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