China: The Pessoptimist Nation [Paperback]

Unlike most of the many books being published these days about China, this one tries to take Chinese culture seriously. That is, economic and political concerns do not dominate the discussion but emerge as the visible consequences of cultural choices operated by the Chinese leadership. The basic and inescapable assertion is that these leaders could not stay in power unless they found support broadly based in the Chinese population. Mere police power, despite its high development in China, could not succeed without the broad credibility of the leadership's national and nationalist narratives.
Callahan's work is to unpack the major factors that have been at work over the last several decades, notably the theme of National Humiliation that has been cultivated in history textbooks and media presentations.
The author reminds us that this theme, though it came visibly to the fore after the Tiananmen events of 1989, was not at all new. Reformers late in the Qing Dynasty played up this view, as did the Republic of China during its years of dominance.
The author's main point is that Westerners, if they seek to be realistic, must recognize that the present leadership continues to show remarkable astuteness in engaging popular support, despite diverse kinds of unhappiness and opposition. Only by taking the Chinese seriously on their own terms can we as outsiders hope to cope with China.
The title attracts attention, but is not quite right. If it is taken as implying that the Chinese tend to view the world both pessimistically and optimistically, it disregards Callaghan's basis theme: that we need to break up our Western mindsets that tend to categorize China as one thing or another. China instead operates through methods of oxymoron and paradox, structures of feeling rather than abstract categories - and, in particular, those structures of feeling in which one emotion (national humiliation) can feed into its apparent opposite (national pride). In other words, these rhetorical figures remind us that China does not fit comfortably into Western categories. What Callaghan shows is that we need to admit much more complexity into our views of China, even if they is not comfortable for many in the West. Arguing for a new Chinese perspective, based chapter by chapter on actual Chinese artifacts, Callaghan seeks to reorient our own vision of China - to see not what but who is the China with which we must now engage.