"In this exploration of the origins of nationalism and concepts of racial identity in China, Pamela Kyle Crossley traces the shifting ideologies of a large, early modern land-based empire, the Qing (1636-1912). Drawing on a wide variety of primary sources, Crossley argues that motifs introduced under the Qing in the eighteenth century - part of the crystallizing categories of identity that the Qing themselves promoted - continue to distort the modern understanding of Qing origins.

What has often been repudiated by nationalist foes of empire, it turns out, is frequently itself a creation of empire."--BOOK JACKET.