Introduction

Summary

The Introduction discusses the concept of the Sinosphere; the history of the extension of Chinese commercial networks into Japan in the nineteenth century; the movement of Chinese into Japan and of Japanese into the South China littoral; Japanese anxieties regarding China and efforts to displace it as the center of the regional order; and the imaginative geographies that these developments engendered. It introduces the theories of space, territory, and place that frame the studies in each chapter, showing in particular how different spatialities intersected in the construction and contestation of borders. It treats borders as historically evolving entities, both spatial and epistemological, and highlights the importance of viewing border-making and border-crossing as processes of embodiment. It shows how new approaches to the study of intimacy permit multiscalar histories of empire, nation, family, and identity that avoid reifying any of those categories. The Introduction also addresses the role of the sensationalist media and operations of fantasy in shaping Japan's imperial world. Finally, it connects the subjects of this study to present-day relations betweeen Japan and China.