A Cultural History of East Asia…

…is a six-volume examination of the human experience in East Asia, from ancient times to the twentieth century. It explores 3500 years of history from the rise of civilization in East Asia to the advent of modernity and beyond. The collection of essays collectively examine the cultural sphere that developed from China across the greater East Asian region, what specialists refer to as the ‘Sinosphere’, as a geospatial zone where the flow of ideas, peoples and things to and from China exists independent of the political controls exerted by the Chinese state.

The six volumes of A Cultural History of East Asia…

…collectively demonstrate how the ebb and flow of East Asian culture was the result of a cascade of center-periphery relations between China and its neighbors that co-produced an evolving notion of shared cultural values and practices across the region. The 54 specially commissioned chapters individually examine the historical trajectory of the Sinosphere from the advent of Shang civilization in 1500 BCE until the arrival of Western imperial powers in the nineteenth century encouraged a few peripheral states, Vietnam and Japan specifically, to launch their own challenges to Chinese cultural hegemony into the twentieth century. The series will provide historians – and scholars and students of related fields – with a comprehensive, interdisciplinary overview of the cultural history of East Asia from the ancient period to modernity.