Harbin of the 1920s was viewed by Westerners as a world turned upside down. The Chinese government had taken over administration of the Russian-founded Chinese Eastern Railway concession, and its large Russian population. This account of the decade-long multi-ethnic and multinational administrative experiment in North Manchuria reveals that China not only created policies to promote Chinese sovereignty but also instituted measures to protect the Russian minority. This multi-faceted book is a historical examination of how an ethnic, cultural, and racial majority coexisted with a minority of a different culture and race. It restores to history the multiple national influences that have shaped northern China and Chinese nationalism.

"Chiasson is not afraid to take on the racial prejudice and discrimination that Was part of life in China's concession areas. His use of many Russian sources albums him to give the Russian perspective on what is usually taken to be a part of China's history. This book should have wide appeal to those interested in modernizations, colonial history, inter-cultural confrontation and, intimately related to these topics, the creation of planned human communities."-Ronald Suleski, author of Civil Government in Warlord China: Tradition, Modernization, and Manchuria "Administering the Colonizaer scholarship. Chiasson, more than any previous author, details the administrative structures and policies by which the unique city of Harbin was governed during the transition from Russian to Chinese rule. His book makes an outstanding original contribution on a subject that is important in its own right, but even more so as instances of mixed administration (both historical and current) are popular and relevant cases to study."-James Carter, author of Creating a Chinese Harbin: Nationalism in an International City, 1916-1932 Harbing of the 1920's was viewed by Westerners as a world turned upside down. The Chinese government had taken over administration of the Russian-founded Chinese Eastern Railway concession, and its large Russian population. This account of the decade-long multi-ethnic and multinational administrative experiment in North Manchuria reveals that China not only created policies to promote Chinese sovereignty but also intituted measures to protect the Russian minority. This is a historical examination of how an ethnic, cultural, and racial majority coexisted with a minority of a different culture and race. It restores to history the national influences that have shaped northern China and Chinese nationalism.

Colonialism is a dehumanizing experience for all those at the mercy of its power structures. The officers of the Indian Civil Service (ICS) were no exception. This book focuses on the role of ICS in World War II and engages in a wider debate about colonialism’s impact on its administrators and subjects. The author looks at the events of World War II specifically in the province of Assam in India’s North-East. It is here that the British and American troops were stationed as they attempted to retake Burma following Japan’s invasion in 1942 and supply the Allied Chinese by road and air. The volume also focuses on how radio broadcasting was used to manufacture the Indian public’s consent for the war effort and explores the horrors of the Bengal Famine and the controversies surrounding the British responses to it. The central character in the book’s narrative is Sir Andrew Clow who was a career civil servant in India. He was the Minister for Communications during the late 1930s and early 1940s before he became the Governor of Assam in 1942. The book is partly a biography of his fascinating career.

Crossing Boundaries: Ethnicity, Race, and National Belonging in a Transnational World explores ethnic and racial nationalism within a transnational and transcultural framework in the long twentieth century (late nineteenth to early twenty-first century). The contributors to this volume examine how national solidarity and identity—with their vast array of ideological, political, intellectual, social, and ethno-racial qualities—crossed juridical, territorial, and cultural boundaries to become transnational; how they altered the ethnic and racial visions of nation-states throughout the twentieth century; and how they ultimately influenced conceptions of national belonging across the globe. Human beings live in an increasingly interconnected, transnational, global world. National economies are linked worldwide, information can be transmitted around the world in seconds, and borders are more transparent and fluid. In this process of transnational expansion, the very definition of what constitutes a nation and nationalism in many parts of the world has been expanded to include individuals from different countries, and, more importantly, members of ethno-racial communities. But crossing boundaries is not a new phenomenon. In fact, transnationalism has a long and sordid history that has not been fully appreciated. Scholars and laypeople interested in national development, ethnic nationalism, as well as world history will find Crossing Boundaries indispensable.

"This book examines and reflects on the Jewish community of Harbin, a Chinese city that was established by Russians in 1898"--