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The Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier - Paperback | Diverse Reads

The Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier

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In The Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier, Benno Weiner provides the first in-depth study of an ethnic minority region during the first decade of the People's Republic of China: the Amdo region in the Sino-Tibetan borderland. Employing previously inaccessible local archives as well as other rare primary sources, he demonstrates that the Communist Party's goal in 1950s Amdo was not just state-building, but also nation-building. Such an objective required the construction of narratives and policies capable of convincing Tibetans of their membership in a wider political community.

As Weiner shows, however, early efforts to gradually and organically transform a vast multiethnic empire into a singular nation-state lost out to a revolutionary impatience, demanding more immediate paths to national integration and socialist transformation. This led in 1958 to communization, then to large-scale rebellion and its brutal pacification. Rather than joining voluntarily, Amdo was integrated through the widespread, often indiscriminate use of violence, a violence that lingers in the living memory of Amdo Tibetans and others.

ISBN-13: 9781501772306

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Publication Date: 11-15-2023

Pages: 312

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Series: Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian InstituteColumbia University

Benno Weiner is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Carnegie Mellon University and coeditor of Conflicting Memories.

What People are Saying About This

James Leibold

Weiner has done an exceptional job piecing together a coherent, chronological narrative from fragmented, value-laden archival documents, reading his sources with critical adroitness, and a sharp analytical mind.

Charlene Makley

The Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier is one of the few accounts in English of the relatively neglected watershed year of 1958, when the so-called Chinese revolution was actually brought to non-Chinese communities in the western frontier zone. Compellingly narrated, this book has remarkable contemporary relevance.

Emily T. Yeh

Engagingly written, Weiner's analysis in this book is fresh, packed with insights, and based on work in an area where historical data are very difficult to gather.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Amdo, Empire, and the United Front1. Amdo at the Edge of Empire2. If You Kill the County Head, How Will I Explain Itto the Communist Party? 3. Becoming Masters of Their Own Home(under the Leadership of the Party)4. Establishing a Foundation among the Masses5. High Tide on the High Plateau6. Tibetans Do the Housework, but Han Are the Masters7. Reaching the Sky in a Single Step—The Amdo Rebellion8. Empty Stomachs and Unforgivable CrimesConclusion: Amdo and the End of Empire?