The notion of China as the “Middle Kingdom” (Zhongguo 中國) comes from the fact that Chinese universality is inseparable from a certain idea of civilization, with a centre shining upon surrounding regions. The geographical embodiment of this radiating influence is what is commonly called the sinicized world, which includes the entire East Asian region surrounding China itself: Korea, Japan, Vietnam – all cultures which have been influenced by China to different extents and at different moments in history. Conversely, each time China itself was encroached upon or invaded by “outsiders”, it was always assumed that the latter would end up being transformed and adopting Chinese civilization. Imperial China thus depicted itself not only as the centre of the world but also as a sort of “civilization-world”, and it was not until the second half of the 19th century, under attack from Western powers, that it was constrained to consider itself as just one nation amongst others. It is the same universality of “China as a world” which, after having been jeopardized by colonial powers (including Japan) at the end of the 19th century, is today once again becoming a type of nostalgic self-representation and a unifying factor in the revival of the ancient notion of “All under Heaven” (tianxia), an ideological construction which needs to be re-examined in a critical light.
