Seeing History: Public History in China

When Public History Was Imported From The United States To China Around The Turn Of The Twenty-first Century, It Was Introduced As A Sub-field Within History, And Has Developed Along That Path Ever Since. Professional Historians In China, Even Some Forward-looking Ones, See Public History As Merely Presenting A Change In The Patterns Of Participation In History-making. This Book Offers A Sharply Different View. It Contends, Essentially, That Public History Represents More Than A Research Domain Within History Or Within Any Existing Discipline, Nor Does It Fit Into Any Established Narratives, But Rather, A Fundamental Change Of The Entire Process Of History-making In China. In This Process, The Public Is Prosuming History. Public History Makes Obsolete The Old Structure For Building And Acquiring Historical Knowledge: It Challenges The Old Assumptions, Supersedes The Rigid Academic Hierarchy, And Stirs The Imaginations Of The Multitudes. With An Assemblage Of Case Studies, This Work Makes A Case For A System View Of Public History Making, Or Public History(ing), And Launches A Concept, Complex Public History, I.e. Public History(ing) As Complex Adaptive Systems.