One of the world's foremost scholars offers an insightful and multidisciplinary argument for reenvisioning the idea of "China"in a global context

Offering critical perspectives on a number of ideological issues that have figured prominently in Chinese intellectual discourse since the beginning of the so-called reform and opening ( gaige kaifang 改革開放) in the late 1970s, these essays range widely in subject matter, from Marxist historiography to sociology and anthropology in China to guoxue/national studies. Together they are conceived as different windows into a basic problem: the deployment of culture and history in postrevolutionary Chinese thought. Dirlik touches on a number of themes, including the repudiation of the revolutionary past after 1978, which has led to a rise of cultural nationalism. He further places these developments within a global context, ultimately making a case methodologically for "worlding"China: bringing China into the world, and the world into China.

Arif Dirlik taught at Duke University for thirty years as Professor of History and Anthropology before moving in 2001 to the University of Oregon where he served as Knight Professor of Social Science, Professor of History and Anthropology, and Director of the Center for Critical Theory and Transnational Studies. He subsequently accepted a short-term appointment as Chair Professor of Chinese Studies, Departments of History and Cultural Studies, and Honorary Director of the Chinese University of Hong Kong-Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation Asia-Pacific Centre for Chinese Studies.