Orphan Warriors [Paperback]

Pamela Kyle Crossley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 1991 | ISBN-10: 0691008779 | ISBN-13: 978-0691008776

In the mid-1600s, Manchu bannermen spearheaded the military force that conquered China and founded the Qing Empire, which endured until 1912. By the end of the Taiping War in 1864, however, the descendants of these conquering people were coming to terms with a loss of legal definition, an ever-steeper decline in living standards, and a sense of abandonment by the Qing court. Focusing on three generations of a Manchu family (from 1750 to the 1930s), Orphan Warriors is the first attempt to understand the social and cultural life of the bannermen within the context of the decay of the Qing regime. The book reveals that the Manchus were not "sinicized," but that they were growing in consciousness of their separate ethnicity in response to changes in their own position and in Chinese attitudes toward them. Pamela Kyle Crossley's treatment of the Suwan Guwalgiya family of Hangzhou is hinged upon Jinliang (1878-1962), who was viewed at various times as a progressive reformer, a promising scholar, a bureaucratic hack, a traitor, and a relic. The author sees reflected in the ambiguities of his persona much of the plight of other Manchus as they were transformed from a conquering caste to an ethnic minority. Throughout Crossley explores the relationships between cultural decline and cultural survival, polity and identity, ethnicity and the disintegration of empires, all of which frame much of our understanding of the origins of the modern world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (October 7, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691008779
• ISBN-13: 978-0691008776
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,234,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Pamela Kyle Crossley is a historian of the Qing empire, Central Asia, and global history, whose books have been translated into Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. In Chinese and modern history she has pursued the questions of origins of modern identities, particularly their relationship to institutions of imperial rule in the early modern period. Her new history of China since 1800, The Wobbling Pivot, has been noted for its original interpretations of modern Chinese history as the product, to large degree, of changing relations between the central government and coherent structures of local management. In global history, she is co-author of the best-selling text, The Earth and its Peoples, and of Global Society: The World since 1900, as well as the a short study of narrative strategies in global history, What Is Global History? She is professor of history at Dartmouth College.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A first rate read, April 23, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Orphan Warriors (Paperback)

First, there was Evelyn Rawski and now there's Pamela Crossley. These two women are truly revamping Qing culture for the Western world.
The story of the Manchus as seen thru 3 generations of bannermen.
However, one of the earlier reviews was clearly horsing around - he has morphed Emperor Puyi to Piyu and also mentioned that Jinliang was Puyi's courtesan.
Jinliang was a man!
The reference to the Empress Dowager's interest in all things equus gives the game away.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute Classic, August 29, 2010

By 

thinking_woman - See all my reviews

This review is from: Orphan Warriors (Paperback)

I just discovered this author and thanks to Amazon got my very own copy of this classic. It is THE book that opened up modern study of the Manchus. The thread here is also a classic --example of why Amazon reviews are such a joke. Not too surprising that a Harvard grad student gave the book a 4 without making a single knowledgeable reference to the book itself. I hear from fellow students that Harvard hates Crossley. And then another guy with a 4 actually says he doesn't intend to review the book but just stopped by to make sure we know that emperors probably did it with eunuchs as well as concubines. That has absolutely nothing to do with what is in this book. Why rate the book when you have no interest in or knowledge of it?

This is a stunning read, I can't believe it has been made into a miniseries yet. I'm going to read more by this author, she might make me a Sinologist who knows.

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking Issue, May 17, 2002

By 

"wkzmed" (Marion, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Orphan Warriors (Paperback)

I must take issue with the comments from Singapore. Orphan Warriors was 1991, the Last Emperors, 1998. How does one figure that the later book came first? This is not to detract from Evelyn S. Rawski, who has written the definitive study of the Qing (Ch'ing) emperors.