Book review of Pan Guangzhe 潘光哲, <i>Chuangzao jindai Zhongguo de “shijie zhishi” </i>創造近代中國的「世界知識」(<i>The Making of “World Knowledge” in Modern China</i>)

Abstract

Book Review Pan Guangzhe 潘光哲, Chuangzao jindai Zhongguo de “shijie zhishi” 創造近代中國的「世界知識」(The Making of “World Knowledge” in Modern China). Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press (China), 2019. xviii, 326 pp. Paper, ￥98, ISBN: 978-7-5201-4942-6. In the 1840s, China was forcefully opened by British imperialism and entered the modern era. Subsequent decades witnessed China increasingly integrated into a new world order, challenging and even dismantling its traditional worldview of being the world center. The encounter between China and foreign powers in the late Qing period initiated a pursuit of modern knowledge covering topics from world geography to western political systems. Far from being simple, linear, and unilateral, the process of conceptualizing a modern world was shaped by various agents in different sociopolitical settings. Pan Guangzhe’s study, The Making of “World Knowledge” in Modern China, shows the intricate interactions of ideas and concepts underpinning world knowledge discourse in Chinese-language writings of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.