In the 1920s, Western observers viewed Harbin, in North Manchuria, as a world turned upside down. Located in a former Chinese EasternRailway concession with a significant Russian population, the city andthe Special District in which it resided were represented as placesthat had reversed the “natural" racial hierarchy – asplaces where whites were the ruled and not the rulers. Administering the Colonizer explores how a non-Westernculture in a position of authority dealt with a Western minority underits administration. Chinese and Russian sources, as well as accounts byEuropean observers, reveal that China created policies in a number ofareas – security, municipal government, land administration, andeducation – that promoted its sovereignty and also protected theRussian minority. By considering this unique administrative experimentfrom both Chinese and Russian perspectives, this book offers a nuancedand multifaceted portrait of this frontier region and the unique formof Chinese nationalism to which it gave birth. Administering the Colonizer restores to history the multiplenational influences that have shaped northern China and Chinesenationalism, previously glossed over by the ideological and nationalhistories emanating from Moscow and present-day Beijing. It is ahistorical examination of how an ethnic, cultural, and racial majoritycoexisted with a minority of a different culture and race. | Administering the Colonizer by Blaine R. Chiasson, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters