This book examines the evolution of the local identity in China from historical times to the present day. It traces the expression of local identity in religion and myth, in the construction of the provincial character, in the growth of cities, in literature, in economic development and in the expansion of the Chinese state. It argues that the growth of a local identity was part and parcel of the evolution of a national character. But, it notes also that the transforming of the local identity with the extension of the state has often come with a sense of nostalgia, a yearning for a world that has perhaps never been.
David Faure works on the history of Hong Kong, the Pearl River Delta and Chinese business history. He is currently University Lecturer in Modern Chinese History and Fellow of St. Antony’s College at the University of Oxford. Tao Tao Liu works on modern Chinese fiction and Chinese poetry. She is University Lecturer in Modern Chinese and Fellow of Wadham College at the University of Oxford.