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11. Romanization without Rome: China’s Latin New Script and Soviet Central Asia

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Asia Inside Out
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Romanization without RomeChina’s Latin New Script and Soviet Central Asiajing tsuIn recent years, there has been a burgeoning interest in how things tie to-gether rather than stay apart. Th e growing awareness of historically fl uid, moveable boundaries has sparked new interpretations of Asia. Some of these connections are currently colliding in innovative ways. In search of a nar-rative that builds less on the indictment of any single state or past colonial power, humanists and social scientists turn their gaze to the inner and global dynamics of Asia—and even of multiple Asias. Still coming to light, the overlay of old and new linkages across its tight and vast regions has led crit-ics to choose diff erent bars of comparison. Some argue for Asia as a method (Takeuchi 2005; Frank 1988; Chen 2010), i.e., articulating its historical formation as not a resistance to the outside but an unfulfi lled path. Others turn to the borderlands and divided continents as a window into proprietary histories (Perdue 2005; Struve 2004; Lewis and Wigen 1997). Meanwhile, there are still those who prefer the analysis of national entities writ large. In this last instance, China is garnering special attention as a possible new breed of global power that diff ers in kind from the European and American variety of recent centuries.

Romanization without RomeChina’s Latin New Script and Soviet Central Asiajing tsuIn recent years, there has been a burgeoning interest in how things tie to-gether rather than stay apart. Th e growing awareness of historically fl uid, moveable boundaries has sparked new interpretations of Asia. Some of these connections are currently colliding in innovative ways. In search of a nar-rative that builds less on the indictment of any single state or past colonial power, humanists and social scientists turn their gaze to the inner and global dynamics of Asia—and even of multiple Asias. Still coming to light, the overlay of old and new linkages across its tight and vast regions has led crit-ics to choose diff erent bars of comparison. Some argue for Asia as a method (Takeuchi 2005; Frank 1988; Chen 2010), i.e., articulating its historical formation as not a resistance to the outside but an unfulfi lled path. Others turn to the borderlands and divided continents as a window into proprietary histories (Perdue 2005; Struve 2004; Lewis and Wigen 1997). Meanwhile, there are still those who prefer the analysis of national entities writ large. In this last instance, China is garnering special attention as a possible new breed of global power that diff ers in kind from the European and American variety of recent centuries.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Introduction: Spatial Assemblages 1
  4. 1. Placing the “Chinese Pirates” of the Gulf of Tongking at the End of the Eighteenth Century 31
  5. 2. The Original Translocal Society: Making Chaolian from Land and Sea 64
  6. 3. Spatial Moments: Chittagong in Four Scenes 98
  7. 4. War and Charisma: Horses and Elephants in the Indian Ocean Economy 128
  8. 5. Homemaking as Placemaking: Women in Elite Households in Early Modern Japan and Late Imperial China 169
  9. 6. Crossing Borders in Imperial China 195
  10. 7. Kashmiri Merchants and Qing Intelligence Networks in the Himalayas: The Ahmed Ali Case of 1830 219
  11. 8. Circulations via Tangyan, a Town in the Northern Shan State of Burma 243
  12. 9. Turning Space into Place: British India and the Invention of Iraq 271
  13. 10. Marriage and the Management of Place in Southern Arabia 302
  14. 11. Romanization without Rome: China’s Latin New Script and Soviet Central Asia 321
  15. 12. Riding the Wave: Korea’s Economic Growth and Asia in the Modern Development Era 354
  16. 13. The Circulation of Korean Pop: Soft Power and Inter-Asian Conviviality 381
  17. Contributors 401
  18. Acknowledgments 405
  19. Index 407
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https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674286320-011

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Introduction: Spatial Assemblages 1
  4. 1. Placing the “Chinese Pirates” of the Gulf of Tongking at the End of the Eighteenth Century 31
  5. 2. The Original Translocal Society: Making Chaolian from Land and Sea 64
  6. 3. Spatial Moments: Chittagong in Four Scenes 98
  7. 4. War and Charisma: Horses and Elephants in the Indian Ocean Economy 128
  8. 5. Homemaking as Placemaking: Women in Elite Households in Early Modern Japan and Late Imperial China 169
  9. 6. Crossing Borders in Imperial China 195
  10. 7. Kashmiri Merchants and Qing Intelligence Networks in the Himalayas: The Ahmed Ali Case of 1830 219
  11. 8. Circulations via Tangyan, a Town in the Northern Shan State of Burma 243
  12. 9. Turning Space into Place: British India and the Invention of Iraq 271
  13. 10. Marriage and the Management of Place in Southern Arabia 302
  14. 11. Romanization without Rome: China’s Latin New Script and Soviet Central Asia 321
  15. 12. Riding the Wave: Korea’s Economic Growth and Asia in the Modern Development Era 354
  16. 13. The Circulation of Korean Pop: Soft Power and Inter-Asian Conviviality 381
  17. Contributors 401
  18. Acknowledgments 405
  19. Index 407
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