Abstract
Since the 2000s, historical studies on overseas Chinese in Japanese academic circles have questioned the “nation-state” as a major analytical framework. They have introduced new concepts such as transnationalism and diaspora, emphasized the characteristics and peculiarities of overseas Chinese as transnational and transborder immigrants, and attempted to relativize the analytical framework of the “nation-state” itself. Unintentionally and indirectly, these historical studies continue to take the “nation-state” as a principal institutional and territorial unit that can modify the distinct characteristics of overseas Chinese, and contribute to the reproduction of stereotypical images of the “nation-state” in modern history. In consideration of the above situation, this article aims to provide an alternative approach. It argues that historicizing both the “nation-state” and overseas Chinese is an important step toward overcoming this complex and twisted analytical issue. It calls the attempt the subjectivation (of the framework) of the “nation-state.”
