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Bridging the “Far East” and the “Near East”: Global Imperialism, Non-Western Identities, and East Asia in World History
Organizer: Yufeng Mao, George Washington University
Chair and Discussant: Jacqueline Armijo-Hussein, Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Adding to an increasing body of literature that emphasizes the importance of the “periphery” vis-à-vis the “center,” this panel seeks to bring two large non-western regions to the center of historical consideration. Not only does this panel cross the borders of nations, geographic locations, and historical periods, it is equally interested in searching for consistent themes and internal logics of world history. Using multi-language primary sources, including German, French, Chinese and Arabic sources, these three papers address the various ways in which the linkages between the “Far East” and the “Near East” matter.
Anne Louise Antonoff’s paper examines a Near Eastern crisis in a Far Eastern context. Her extensive archival research has led her to conclude that the crucial factor in the 1908 Balkan crisis was great power politics in East Asia. Yufeng Mao’s research deals with Chinese Muslim students at Al-Azhar University in Cairo in the first half of the 20th century. It offers a window into the identity of Chinese Muslim students in Egypt, explores state-Muslim relations in China, and examines the role of these students in the making of a common “weak nation” identity in China and the Arab world. Finally, Anchi Hoh’s paper explores female sexuality in China and the Arab world through a comparative study of Chinese and Arab feminisms. The quest for female sexuality in both regions has been influenced by Western feminisms. Equally importantly, it reflects separate sets of traditions and unique experiences of Chinese and Arab women.
Near and Far East in Balkan Crisis, 1903-1914
Anne Louise Antonoff, Yale University
Few scholars today would believe that East Asia mattered to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, let alone had any impact on the origins of the First World War. In fact, however, the Near East and East Asia formed the backdrop to some of the most salient of the pre-war crises. This paper will discuss the connections between, on the one hand, Balkan crises among the Great Powers, and on the other hand, tensions within Central and East Asia in the decade before the First World War.
Prior to 1914, the Near East included the Balkans, where the Ottoman Empire maintained a presence up through the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. It also included North Africa, where local rulers attempted to hold the French at bay in Morocco. Rounding out the picture, Central Asia also loomed large in the background, from Turkey to Persia, Afghanistan and India.
Mapped onto this geographical network, a decade-series of clustered crises linked the Balkans and East Asia in a continuous spectrum of Great Power competition and confrontation. At stake were Great Power interests that, in some cases, could only be served by manipulation of crises in other regions. At the same time, the linkages helped mediate America’s timid first ventures into troubled European water. By locating both the Near East and East Asia within a larger geopolitical spectrum of Great Power crisis, one may thus better understand both the diplomatic complexity and strategic logic manifested in the origins of the First World War.
Chinese Muslim Students at Al-Azhar
Yufeng Mao, George Washington University
In the 1920s and 1930s, dozens of Chinese Muslim students went to study at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. An examination of the lives and activities of these students studying at Azhar illuminates three issues: their self-identities; state-Muslim relations in China in a global context; and the role of these students in the forming of a common “weak nation” identity between China and Arab world.
This paper shows that some of the Muslim students at Al-Azhar were at once Chinese nationalists and pious Muslims. While in Egypt, these students made contacts with Arab nationalists and participated in activities to “save China,” especially after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war in 1937. As Chinese nationalists, they were concerned with modernization and nation-building back home. As pious Muslims, they saw themselves as working for the enlightenment of both Chinese Muslims and non-Muslims.
Through examining the students’ interactions with the Chinese state, this paper explores the question of state-Muslim relations in China in a global context. Instead of assigning Chinese Muslims a passive role in state-Muslim relations, this paper shows that these Muslim students were engaged actors.
Finally, students at Al-Azhar were an important part of people-to-people diplomacy, which would later become crucial in Sino-Egyptian relations. This paper goes further to argue that these students played a key role in the making of a common “weak nation” identity between China and the Arab world.
Female Sexuality in Chinese and Arab Feminisms: A Comparative Study
Anchi Hoh, Library of Congress
As different as the Arab and Chinese cultures may seem, such distinctions begin to blur when it comes to women’s issues and the common quest for feminism. Confronted by traditional and cultural constraints, both Arab and Chinese women have been engaged in the feminist discourses. Arab and Chinese feminisms are both perceived as parts of Third World feminism as opposed to its western mainstream counterpart. It is often argued that the Western mainstream feminism overlooks the unique experience and viewpoints of women from the Third World, because it was established based on the perspectives of middle-class white Western women whose understanding of women in the Third World was often mixed with racism and classism.
Although classified generally under the Third World feminism, how different or similar are the Arab and Chinese feminisms? This study aims to answer the question by using the concept of female sexuality as a test case. The viewpoints of Chinese and Arab feminism on this concept will be juxtaposed for comparison. Further, the influences of western feminism on Chinese and Arab feminist discourses will be examined. This paper highlights the differences and similarities between the Arab and Chinese feminists in their quest for female sexuality and related intellectual discussions, as well as the impact of traditions and the western feminisms. The exercise of such cross-cultural and cross-boundary examination should aid in understanding Third World feminism and show that it would be a mistake to look at it as a generic term without taking into consideration the cultural and ethnic backgrounds of its component feminist ideologies.