Stretching the skin of the nation: Chinese intellectuals, the state, and the frontiers in the Nanjing decade (1927--1937)

During the Nanjing decade (1927-1937), China experienced a "frontier crisis" (bianjiang weiji). The Chinese state wrestled with frontier problems simultaneously at almost every section of its land frontiers. In this context, Chinese (mostly Han) intellectuals voiced the slogan "Go to the Frontier" (dao bianjiang qu) and embarked on an avid examination of the frontier regions. They both traced China's historical geography as recorded in Chinese classics and traveled to frontier regions to investigate local conditions. A plethora of diverse frontier study societies and investigation teams sprang up, many of which established frontier-related journals. These journals proposed ways of developing the frontiers and better integrating them into the Chinese nation. Focusing on the "Go to the Frontier" movement, this study examines several salient features --- politico-ideological, cultural, technological, and finally, scientific and disciplinary of Nationalist China's "stretching" of its skin to contain the vast frontier regions. Educated Han elites, facing the frontier crisis, reimagined China's position in Asian and global space, in accordance with both territorial nationalism and transnational ideologies, national and imperial practices. This study analyzes the language in which Chinese intellectuals and officials represented the frontiers, as well as the specific engineering projects that they developed to intervene in frontier regions. It ends by identifying the most important historical legacies of this movement. Because of substantial political and economic constraints, the "Go to the Frontier" movement could not fully accomplish the task of bringing all of the frontier regions under state control. To a certain extent, the slogan "Go to the Frontier" proved to be more illusory than practical. Nonetheless, the movement produced enduring rhetoric and a repertoire of approaches with regard to China's peripheral regions that would be influential and would connect the eras of the Republic of China (ROC, 1911-1949) and the People's Republic of China (PRC, 1949-present). The movement also had significant impact on the disciplinary formation of modern Chinese geography, which, in turn, assisted in the institutionalization of Chinese concerns over the frontier regions.