banner. Banner for Peng Peng vertical bar From Empire to Nation-State: Historical Development of National Identity in China

Peng Peng | From Empire to Nation-State: Historical Development of National Identity in China

by Center on Contemporary China

Lecture

Mon, Mar 30, 2026

4:30 PM – 6 PM EDT (GMT-4)

Add to Calendar
Please select a time slot

Louis A. Simpson International Building, Room A71

Princeton, NJ 08544, United States

View Map

Details

poster. Flyer for Peng Peng vertical bar From Empire to Nation-State: Historical Development of National Identity in China
From Empire to Nation-State examines how Chinese elites reimagined and shaped the nation during the late Qing (1840–1949). Most accounts emphasize an enmity pathway: foreign threats provoked humiliation and hostility, hardening boundaries through opposition. This book advances an aspirational alternative, showing that crises also generated emulation. Elites compared China to more successful states—especially culturally proximate Japan—and sought to borrow institutions in law, education, industry, and governance. Drawing on original datasets of late-Qing newspapers and journals, including Shen Bao and the National Index of Newspapers and Periodicals, the book traces how discourse about “China" oscillated between antagonism and admiration. While war and defeat produced spikes of enmity, emulative appeals soon resurged and often dominated. The book reframes nation-building as a dual, sequential process—enmity followed by emulation—and recasts Chinese nationalism as not only grievance-driven but also reformist, outward-looking, and aspirational.

Where

Louis A. Simpson International Building, Room A71

Princeton, NJ 08544, United States

Speakers

Peng Peng's profile photo

Peng Peng

Assistant Professor of Political Science and Global Studies

Washington University in St. Louis

Peng Peng is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Global Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research sits at the intersection of historical political economy, nationalism, and state building, with a regional focus on China. She combines archival evidence, computational text analysis, and original datasets to study how ideas, institutions, and external pressures shape nation-building over the long run. Current projects include the late-Qing transformation of national identity, the political economy of meritocratic bureaucracy, and the role of ideational capacity in state performance. Her work has been supported by competitive grants and presented at leading conferences in comparative politics and political economy.


Sponsors

Sponsor's Logo

Hosted By

Center on Contemporary China | View More Events
Co-hosted with: Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies, Center on Contemporary China (OWNER)

Contact the organizers