Creating a Chinese Harbin: Nationalism in an International City, 1916-1932 (review)

The city of Harbin, which initially came into existence as part of the expansion of the Russian empire in northern Manchuria at the end of the nineteenth century, offers an unusually rich site for the study of such topics as national and cultural identity, sovereignty, or citizenship that have recently captured the attention of many students of modern history. A thriving metropolis where Russians, Chinese, Japanese, other Europeans, and Americans co-existed, albeit often uneasily, either in collaboration or in conflict with each other, Harbin has a historical identity that has long been contentious. Harbin, indeed, was a different place for different people. Carter's concern in the present volume, however, is not so much the multiple claims that different constituencies made to the city. Rather, he is primarily interested in the making of a Chinese identity for the city as well as the tensions and the limitations inherent within that process in the early twentieth century.

Carter's point of entry in tracing this story of Chinese nationalism in Harbin is the Donghua School, founded in 1918 by a group of Chinese elites as a vehicle to promote not only modern education, but also patriotic values and nationalist consciousness. The initial vision of the school was based on what Carter calls "cooperative nationalism" (31)—developing a Chinese national identity free of strident anti-foreignism—but the school was soon caught within the political turmoil in China during the 1920s. In conjunction with the eclipse of Russian power in Harbin following the revolutions of 1917, a more radical form of anti-imperialist nationalism began to take shape and the fragile coalition between different segments of the city's Chinese community—officials, students, merchants, and workers—soon fell apart. Despite explicit efforts to reinforce a Chinese identity in Harbin through, for example, the construction of strategically located Buddhist and Confucian temples, as well as other Chinese-style architectural structures, Chinese nationalism in Harbin failed to overcome its internal tensions and proved to be weak in face of Japanese expansion in the early 1930s. The rule of the puppet-regime of Manchukuo was imposed on the city with relative ease and with the cooperation of local officials.

Carter asks, What accounted for the "failure" of Chinese nationalism in Harbin? He provides an admirably commonsensical answer. Confronted with the Russian domination of the city prior to 1917, the Chinese community formed a united front both to enhance Chinese power and presence and to forge a distinctive Chinese identity for the city. With the common enemy crippled, if not exactly gone, however, the united front was subsequently fragmented; different factions pushed for their own visions of the "nation." Meanwhile, the new Chinese state—as represented by the Guomindang regime in Nanjing—arrogated to itself the role of sole legitimate representative of the collective national will. With such fragmentation and contestation, it became clear that the Chinese nation was an entity that would simply be defined by those in power. As Carter puts it, "the right to define China is both the reward and the indicator of who holds power" (9). It thus becomes understandable, according to Carter, why officials, including those in Harbin, would put service to the state above that to the nation, even if, in this particular case, the state—Manchukuo—was actually founded by an alien power.

Although Carter's explanation of why officials in Harbin transferred their allegiance to the Manchukuo regime, as well as his distinction between "cooperative" and "confrontational" nationalism, may find disagreement, few would quibble with his overall narrative of the making of a Chinese national identity in the city. Nevertheless, the nagging issue of whether Carter has asked the right question remains. It is interesting—and perhaps telling—that although the book is about nationalism, Carter offers little theoretical discussion of the concept...