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This is a collection of eleven papers from a conference on the meaning of being Chinese held in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1990. All but two of the papers were published in an issue of the journal Daedalus in the spring of 1991. The aim of this book, as stated by the editor, is to explore the meaning of being Chinese as a complex process and to avoid static definitions. This anthology includes papers by historians Tu Weiming, Mark Elvin, Vera Schwarcz, Wang Gungwu, and L. Ling-chi Wang, by the sociologist Ambrose Yeo-chi King, by anthropologists Myron L. Cohen and David Yen-ho Wu, by the legal scholar Victor Hao Li, and by literary scholars Leo Ou-fan Lee and Zhu Hong.
One central theme of this book is the role that the "core" and the "periphery" play in the formulation of Chinese identity. The particular meaning of the "core" and the "periphery" depend on the context in which the terms are used. These terms sometimes designate geographical locations, with China as the core and areas outside of China forming the periphery. The core and the periphery can also represent states of mind. For example, the core might be concepts and values such...