The Making of a Chinese City: History and Historiography in Harbin (review)

384 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1996© 1996 by University ofHawai'i Press vast amount of recent Western scholarship, Clausen argues that survey research ofthe sort pioneered by Stanley Rosen, Andrew Nathan, Shi Tianjian, and others offers a particularly promising avenue to a better understanding of China. He also suggests that "new and refined" concepts are needed to help "transcend the ideological simplifications" of such familiar dichotomies as "structure" versus "culture " and "state" versus "society." Richard Smith Rice University Richard Smith is a professor ofhistory and Director ofAsian Studies at Rice University ; he specializes in modern Chinese history and traditional Chinese culture. Soren Clausen and Stig Thogersen. The Making ofa Chinese City: History and Historiography in Harbin. Armonk and London: M. E. Sharpe, 1995. 272 pp. Hardcover $59.95, isbn 1-56324-475-6. Paperback $22.50, isbn 156324 -476-4. The late twentietii-century proliferation of international sister-city relationships has had ramifications far beyond the favorable trade commitments hoped for by enthusiastic chambers-of-commerce. Not the least of these have been increased opportunities for academic exchange.' Thus began Clausen and Thogersen's exploration of the writing of history in Harbin, sister-city to Aarhus, Denmark, where they are faculty members in the Department of East Asian Studies at die University ofAarhus. Although neither author had researched urban history in the past, the complex and highly varied interpretations of Harbin's past that they encountered in die course of sister-cities activities led them to explore the multifaceted historical project in Harbin. The successful result of their explorations is The Making ofa Chinese City, a wide-ranging book that portrays the multiple and varying interpretations of Harbin's history through an interweaving of summary discussions and translations of original texts. The authors reveal both the variations in accounts of Harbin's history from the differing national perspectives of the Russians and the Chinese and the changing nature of historical writings in the PRC. The book is well-structured around four chapters covering historical periods designated as pre-1898, 1898-1932 (Russian Influence), 1932-1945 (Japanese Occupation ), and 1945-1989 (Socialist Transformation). A fifth chapter discusses the Reviews 385 contemporary writing and publication ofnew gazetteers and historical journals for Harbin. Each chapter begins with a summary ofthe authors' observations and research. These discussions are balanced throughout the book to the extent that they follow similar organization and subsections in each chapter. In each case the summary discussion is followed by several translated texts, which provide the reader direct access to the material discussed in the summary. These texts range from discussions by Chinese historians oftopics such as Harbin's early history or specific historical events to biographical accounts ofhistorical figures and ordinary citizens caught up in Harbin's turbulent history. The author's discussions account for just under half of the book (ninety-five pages), while the translated texts (124 pages) make up the rest. There is a short "glossary" (a character list), a bibliography, and an index. In addition, there are eight unnumbered pages of black-and-white photographs inserted into the center ofthe book and augmented by quite detailed and informative captions. The primary strengths of The Making ofa Chinese City are its contextualization ofthe writing ofmodern Chinese history with particular emphasis on the issue ofcontested terrain, its skillful presentation ofmultiple voices and points of view, and its portrayal ofthe construction ofidentities for both people and places. The Makingofa Chinese Cityplaces the writing ofhistory inextricably within the political, economic, and social constraints that surround it. The authors emphasize the contested nature ofHarbin's terrain and the role which that controversy plays in the writing ofHarbin's history. As Chinese, Russians, and Japanese, and Nationalists and Communists competed for control ofHarbin, interpretations of Harbin's history changed as well. This contextualization is most vividly portrayed in discussions ofdie widely variant interpretations ofHarbin's pre-1898 historyby Russian and Chinese historians, and in discussions of trends in historical writings in China during the post-Mao era. In this endeavor the book compares favorably with Paul Cohen's 1984 DiscoveringHistory in China, which analyzes changing interpretations of China's history by American historians.2 The authors' discussions...