Tianxia and Its Discontents

Reviews / Votes

'This remarkable and groundbreaking work rethinks Chinese history and thought through the lens of the imperial logic of tianxia. Few scholars possess Joyce Liu's breadth of cross-disciplinary knowledge. Drawing on intellectual history, global studies of colonialism, and critical theory, she maps geographies of domination while working within and against them to open new horizons for a politics of liberation in East Asia and beyond. Tianxia and Its Discontents is both a major scholarly achievement and a committed political intervention, urgently needed in our turbulent present.'

Sandro Mezzadra, Professor, Department of the Arts, University of Bologna, Italy

'With such boldness and force, few scholars have ever bridged this diversity of disciplinary fields: the history of ideas, colonial studies, and digital governance. Liu's study not only reinterprets Confucian political theology but also illuminates its contemporary dynamics in the Sinocentric world. A major contribution to our understanding of the politics of knowledge production in the twentieth-first century.'

Naoki Sakai, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Asian Studies Emeritus at Cornell University, USA

'With extraordinary skill and theoretical prescience, Liu combines her deep understanding of Confucian political theology, colonial logics, and the twenty-first century development of capitalism to present possibilities of thinking of the postcolonial age in a new way. A seminal contribution to a long duree historical understanding of the Asian world.'

Ranabir Samaddar, Distinguished Chair in Migration and Forced Migration Studies, Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata, India.

'A perspicacious reading of political Confucianism wedded to a nuanced analysis of China's Belt and Road Initiatives as a colonial cartographic project in material and digital worlds, Liu's work exposes the imperial unconscious in China's Tianxia discourse to advance a critique of empire for the present and a theorization of the remainder as the hope for the future. It's a field changing work that researchers on China, past and present, cannot miss.'

Andy Chih-Ming Wang, Research Fellow (Professor) and Deputy Director, Institute of European and American Culture Studies, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

'Tianxia and Its Discontents is a groundbreaking work that examines the issue of decolonization from the perspective of East Asia. Engaging critically with postcolonial theory, Professor Liu situates the discussion within the specific historical and cultural contexts of East Asia. The work not only enriches global discourses in critical theory but also addresses the formidable challenges of pursuing decolonization amid East Asia's intricate political thought and cultural configurations, thereby offering a significant intervention from the perspective of the humanities.'

Masahisa Suzuki, Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo, Japan

'More than just critically analyzing Chinese visions of world order, Liu turns them inside out. Reading the history of Confucian thought against its official formulations, Tianxia and its Discontents recovers what was always there: not hierarchy dressed as harmony, but resources for living side by side.'

Brett Neilson, Professor and Deputy Director at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University, Australia.

'This groundbreaking book, besides giving an insight into centuries of China's governance thought and politics, and its overlooked colonial appetites, also allows unexpected questions on the reshuffling of contemporary imperialisms. They are now mainly two, China's and the USA's, reconstructing a new worldwide binary, instead of 'capitalism' and 'socialism' of the historic cold war in the 20th century. But where is now the tertium datur, the Non-aligned movement of the 21st century, one wonders? Is there an alternative, a 'third way'? It is still to come. Europe is not it, neither is it - yet - the Global South nor, of course, the BRICS countries. Few scholars bridge intellectual history, coloniality studies, and digital governance with such clarity and force. Liu's study not only reinterprets Confucian political theology but also illuminates its transformations in contemporary geopolitics. A major contribution to our understanding of imperial power(s) and their dynamics in the 21st century. This book will encourage scholars to search further.'

Rada Ivekovic, philosopher, former Research director at the College international de philosophie, Paris, full professor at universities in Yugoslavia and France.