2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Legal Practices, Colonial Rivalry, and Identity in China's Borderlands, 1880-1940
| Project/Area Number |
19K23102
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
|
| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
|---|
| Review Section |
0103:History, archaeology, museology, and related fields
|
|---|
| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2019-08-30 – 2023-03-31
|
| Keywords | Sino-Burmese borderlands / Legal Pluralism / Border Disputes / Ethnic Identity / State-building / Colonialism |
|---|
| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
I have examined the relationship between pluralistic legal practices, state-building, and the formation of identities along China's border regions with Burma and Russia from the 1880s until the 1940s. The analytical framework of this research project has provided a deeper understanding of the role of legal institutions in state-building practices along China's multiethnic borderlands. The results have been presented at conferences in Japan, Europe, and North America. Drawing on previously untapped archival sources that I collected from various countries, I have submitted three journal articles currently under review. I am also in the process of completing a book manuscript on legal practices along the Sino-Burmese borderlands. The manuscript discusses the implications, relevance, and legacy of these legal practices in the conceptualization of the Chinese nation-state and the development of national and ethnic identities among border populations.
|
| Free Research Field |
History
|
| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
This project is the first book-length study on legal practices in the Sino-Burmese borderlands that draws on untapped archival sources in various languages. It provides new insights on the role of legal practices in the creation of new discourses on ethnic identity and national belonging.
|
