Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses and compares Russian and Chinese uses of geopolitical terms having to do with the self-definition of both countries in the early 20th century.

Paper long abstract:

This paper compares two historically unrelated clusters of polemical language. One is critical uses of the term "Asian" in Russian political discourse in the 1900s and 1910s. The other is Chinese usage, mostly in the 1920s, of the Japanese term "Shina", a denomination for "China" which was by then increasingly perceived as injurious to Chinese pride. I will argue that in both cases political and cultural critique was expressed partly by recourse to geography and by adopting an outsider's perspective - that of the foreigner, who would classify Russia as an "Asian" country and call China "Shina". There were also differences between the two sets of terminologies, however, having to do with different understanding by speakers in Russia and China of their country's place in the world and relation to its neighbours.