Making Borders in Modern East Asia

Until The Late Nineteenth Century The Chinese-Korean Tumen River Border Was One Of The Oldest And Perhaps Most Stable State Boundaries In The World. Spurred By Severe Food Scarcity Following A Succession Of Natural Disasters From The 1860S Countless Korean Refugees Crossed The Tumen River Border Into Qing-China''S Manchuria Triggering A Decades-Long Territorial Dispute Between China Korea And Japan. This Major New Study Of A Multilateral And Multiethnic Frontier Highlights The Competing State- And Nation-Building Projects In The Fraught Period That Witnessed The Sino-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War And The First World War. The Power-Plays Over Land And People Simultaneously Promoted China''S Frontier-Building Endeavours Motivated Korea''S Nationalist Imagination And Stimulated Japan''S Colonialist Enterprise Setting East Asia On An Intricate Trajectory From The Late-Imperial To A Situation That Song Argues We Call Modern.