Thomas S. Mullaney

Critical Han Studies

The History, Representation, and Identity of China's Majority

About the Book

Constituting over ninety percent of China's population, Han is not only the largest ethnonational group in that country but also one of the largest categories of human identity in world history. In this pathbreaking volume, a multidisciplinary group of scholars examine this ambiguous identity — one that shares features with, but cannot be subsumed under, existing notions of ethnicity, culture, race, nationality, and civilization.

Addressing the problem of the "Han" ethnos from a variety of relevant perspectives — historical, geographical, racial, political, literary, anthropological, and linguistic — Critical Han Studies offers a responsible, informative deconstruction of this monumental yet murky category.

Co-edited with James Leibold, Stéphane Gros, and Eric Vanden Bussche. Part of the New Perspectives on Chinese Culture and Society series, Volume 4.

Praise for Crit­i­cal Han Studies

It is cer­tain to have an enor­mous impact on the entire field of Chi­na studies.

— Vic­tor H. Mair, Uni­ver­si­ty of Pennsylvania

This deeply his­tor­i­cal, mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary vol­ume con­sis­tent­ly and fruit­ful­ly employs insights from crit­i­cal race and white­ness stud­ies in a new are­na. In doing so it illu­mi­nates bright­ly how and when ideas about race and eth­nic­i­ty change in the ser­vice of shift­ing con­fig­u­ra­tions of power.

— David Roedi­ger, author of How Race Sur­vived U.S. History

A great book. By exam­in­ing the social con­struc­tion of hier­ar­chy in Chi­na, Crit­i­cal Han Stud­ies sheds light on broad issues of cul­tur­al dom­i­nance and in-group favoritism.

— Richard Del­ga­do, author of Crit­i­cal Race The­o­ry: An Introduction

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