BOOK REVIEWS

Jean-Pierre Larivière ed., La Chine et les Chinois de la diaspora [China and the Chinese Diaspora]

Since the inclusion of a course on “China and the Chinese Diaspora” in the competitive French state exams (CAPES and Agrégation) for recruitment of history and geography teachers, there has been a pleasing increase in the number of publications for non specialists of Chinese studies in the country. In the collective work reviewed here, however, Jean-Pierre Larivière has edited a book specifically intended for students preparing for these exams. It begins with a few useful pages on questions of transcription and pronunciation (P. de la Robertie), followed by nine chapters written by the leading experts in demography (J-P. Larivière, P. Trolliet), agriculture (C. Aubert), economic development and its impact on spatial organisation (F. Lemoine, T. Pairault, G. Giroir, T. Sanjuan, F. Carré), each one further developing analyses that have already appeared in specialist journals and books. The value of this work lies in the fact that it makes previously scattered material available to the general public in a single volume and in the process offers the reader a snapshot of the current state of research.

However, the publication appears to us to be incomplete in a number of respects. The preface promised an “up-to-date presentation of the major aspects of the geography of contemporary China”. At the very least, one would have hoped for a brief introduction by the editor to the current state of geographical research on China, explaining the rationale behind the choice of contributors and the place of each of them (why is G. Giroir’s chapter three times the length of that of other contributors?). The absence of such a piece justifying the choices made (one would have thought that for professional historians and geographers a chapter on the way that historians are increasingly taking on board geographical issues seemed ready-made (1)) is perhaps to be attributed to the time constraints of a publication of this kind. Another rather surprising omission is that of an index with a list of maps, graphs and tables that would in themselves have provided a very valuable overview of the field.

Such a general introduction could have taken up three themes that run through the work as a whole. The first is that of Chinese space, involving the question of how to conceive of and organise a place the size of a continent. It is tackled by writers who refer on several occasions to the tripartite division of China into east, central and west, to the north-south division, to Skinner’s physical macroregions, to the opposition between coastal and inland areas, or again to the seven major economic regions. Secondly, there is the important geopolitical question of China’s borders, implicit throughout the work: what role, and particularly what economic role, can the territories play? Finally, each contributor highlights the importance of the developments that have gone hand-in-hand with the opening up of the country to the outside and the economic reforms, as well as the uncertainties hanging over the future.

But the most serious criticism that can be made of this publication is the absence of any discussion or explanation at all of the title itself, “China and the Chinese Diaspora”, taken from the name of the competitive examination in France referred to above. It must be said, however, that there is nothing self-evident in such a title. One could be naive and think that the aim is to discuss the spatial consequences on the Mainland of the return of the Chinese diaspora, aided and abetted by twenty years of reforms. In fact, a good number of pieces deal with coastal development and the problems that this poses in terms of imbalances and regional inequalities. However, in reading this work edited by Larivière, one is drawn to another conclusion, albeit a disappointing one. On the one side, there is the diaspora, dealt with rather lightly, except for Pierre Trolliet’s chapter and possibly that of Thierry Sanjuan, and on the other, China with its demography, agriculture, industry and foreign trade. Thierry Sanjuan’s chapter on Hong Kong is the only one to tackle in any depth the question of relations between China and its outer rim. Yet, a few pages before, Pierre Trolliet takes issue with those who consider Hong Kong and Taiwan to be part of the “Chinese diaspora”, preferring to talk about “external Chinese” or “transborder Chinese communities”. This is not merely a matter of words, and a fuller treatment of the question would have been warranted. If the examination panel did not bother to explain their subject, specialists had a duty to do so and, if necessary, to point out its ambiguities and shortcomings. In short, this is a useful publication considering the quality of each of the pieces, whose overall value would have been greater had all the questions raised by the subject at hand been taken seriously.

Translated from French original by Jonathan Hall