Reviews of:
Failure, Nationalism, and Literature
“Jing Tsu’s provocative and innovative book opens up new critical spaces for us to explore the modalities of failure in the construction of narratives of national identity. Instead of viewing victimhood (or what she terms the “drama of social suffering”) as an inauthentic derivative or strategic form of identity construction, Jing Tsu argues that ‘failure achieves that distinct prerequisite of nationalism that perhaps no other positivistic definition can compel, the recognition of a singular destiny that is the foundation of sovereign thinking’ (p. 222)…one finds parallels throughout the modern world. In the mythologies of Hiroshima, the Holocaust, ANZAC Cove, and 9/11…As Jing Tsu reminds us, failure is a mode of modern being rather than an end point, meaning that there are always new hurdles to overcome.” (more…)
–James Leibold, H-Nationalism
“This is an important book…helps explain many apparently contradictory trends within Chinese political history…the desire for democracy without equally endorsing the conditions required for freedom…Tsu demonstrates that “failure” and narratives of victimization can be a potent and dynamic force in nation-building…Its central focus is on exploring the creation of a national identity of victimhood in China since 1895…the manner in which China has claimed the position of victim in the international arena and has fashioned victimhood into a moral position…until now no scholars have explored the impact and consequences of this persistent identity on China’s evolution. This is a seriously good read.” (more…)
–Louise Edwards, The China Journal
“This is an important book…offers suggestive new insights through a genre-bending analysis that owes much to intellectual history and literary analysis but is beholden to neither. Tsu’s argument that nationalism based on failure leads to embracing failure, even to an inability to separate the identity of the self from failure, is thus of contemporary relevance.” (more…)
–Peter Zarrow, Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica
“This original book addresses nationalism in terms of modern Chinese culture’s response to sociopolitical crises and the anguish of racial humiliation. Tsu draws on psychoanalytical, literary, and cultural sources, offering a convincing account of the ways cultural crises are transfigured or sublimated into a fantasy or a narrative of revitalization, rebirth, and triumphalism.”
–Ban Wang, Stanford University
“Failure is a fascinating book. Its greatest strength lies in its originality…Tsu’s insightful analysis deserves the attention not just of scholars of literary and cultural studies but also of historians and political scientists who have an interest in fathoming the intricate relationship between Chinese cultural identity and nationalism.” (more…)
–Edmund Fung, The Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia
“…a bold and useful book.” (more…)
–Gregory B. Lee, Études chinoises
“Jing Tsu’s findings are compelling. The paradigm of masochism as a cultural posture, in Tsu’s reading, is not simply willing submission to domination, but is characterized as the dominated subject’s psychic mastery of the terms of domination…a significant contribution to the study of modern Chinese literature, both because of the impressive reach and relevance of the strangely empowering discourse of failure Jing Tsu identifies, and because of the fascinating readings provided of discussions on race, gender, and eugenics in late Qing and Republican period print media.” (more…)
–Charles A. Laughlin, Nations and Nationalism
“To claim that modern Chinese identity is built on failure is provocative; to further claim that failure is the primary propelling energy that has brought modernity to China is even more so. But this is exactly that Jing Tsu argues in her book. with this stimulating claim, the author turns around the established understanding of the late Qing and Republican era from a period of aspiring for advancement to a time that relishes and even thrives on a collective sense of failure…Tsu challenges the ways in which sociologists and historians have traditionally investigated the workings of nationalism…the author opens up new cultural and intellectual dimensions to our understanding…Tsu’s book certainly gives us much to ponder.” (more…)
–Lingchei Letty Chen, China Review International
“Failure takes a unique perspective on the psychological motivations and rhetorical strategies of Chinese nationalism. Though the subject of Failure is the formative period of 1895-1937, its departing point is intricately bound with the contemporary scene–from the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, the television series ‘River Elegy,’ the novel trilogy Yellow Peril, BoYang’s The Ugly Chinese, etc., all of which are important moments in contemporary nationalism. It unfolds a dazzling, multifaceted analysis through the use of wide-ranging sources–from Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao’s social philosophy, Lin Shu’s translations, Pan Guangdan’s eugenics, Zhang Jingsheng’s sexology, to Guo Moruo and Yu Dafu’s fiction” (in Chinese) (more…).
–Yang Xiaobin, Bulletin of the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica