ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part examines the lives and scholarship of the four individuals which represent clearly the complexity of the processes. The meaning of the concept of Sinicization is complicated, multidimensional, and contested. It refers to conceptions of Self and Other that are typically deeply intertwined. The practices it represents, discursive and otherwise, can signify either the broadening or the narrowing of social and cultural distances. Many of the developments that are currently shaping the contemporary world – such as globalization, capitalism, nationalism, and multiculturalism – provide the context in which China encounters and engages both East and West, often but not always in what one might call Anglo-China.
