| Pamela Kyle Crossley |
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Crossley is noted for arguing that the Qing empire was not "sinicized," but was ruled in such a way as to integrate Chinese political values with those of Northeast Asia and Mongolia. She pointed out that Manchu language, religion, documents, and customs remained of great importance to the Qing until the middle nineteenth century. On the other hand, she argued that modern "ethnic" identities in China were the product of an interaction of imperial authority and education, social changes, community life, and individual consciousness. While she disagreed with earlier scholars that Manchus had been sinicized, she did not argue that Manchu culture in modern China was the traditional culture of Northeast Asia. Rather, it was a new product of the experience of individual Manchu communities in China itself, shaped by what she called "the sense of difference that has no outward sign" (''Orphan Warriors''', p.267). Her ideas have been generalized to an interpretation of modern nationalism as strongly influenced by the legacies of the early modern empires, particularly regarding the roles of language, religion and genealogy in identity. These ideas have been controversial. Crossley was educated in Lima, Ohio ; Emmaus, Pennsylvania ; Swarthmore College ; and Yale University , where she wrote a dissertation under the direction of Jonathan Spence . Since 1993 she has been Professor of History at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire. EXTERNAL LINKS
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