1 Introduction 1
Part Ⅰ The Operation of Cultural Universalism in Historical Context 21
2 The Chinese Emperor's Informal Empire:Religion and the Incorporation of Local Society in the Ming 21
3 From the Qiang Barbarians to the Qiang Nationality:The Making of a New Chinese Boundary 43
4 Status and Role of the Musicians in Traditional China 81
Part Ⅱ The Rise ofNationalism and the Transition to Nation-State 91
5 Administration and Autonomy:A History of Bureaucratic Provincialism in 20th Century China 91
6 The Role of the Periphery in Chinese Nationalism 133
7 Local Worlds：The Poetics and Politics of the Native Place in Modern China 161
Part Ⅲ Regiona l Division and Incipient Nationalism in Modern Context 201
8 Contrasting Rural Reform in North versus South China 201
9 Economic Integration and the Transformation of Civil Society in Taiwan,Hong Kong,and South China 221
10 The Real Community under Imagined States:The Socio-economic Transformation and Rise of the New Taiwan Consciousness in Contemporary Taiwan 253
11 Imagining a Postmodern China?--Exercising the Geographical Imagination 265
Index 329