Recentring Asia

Book excerpt: These essays argue that recentring Asia necessitates a revision not only of notions of Asia but also of the centre itself. On the one hand, recentring Asia asserts the centrality of overlooked Asian histories, encounters and identities to world history, culture and geopolitics. On the other hand, recentring provides a way to address and rethink the concept of the centre, a term critical to Asian Studies, area studies and, more broadly, to the study of globalization, postcolonialism, diaspora, modernism and modernity. Drawing on new approaches in these fields, Recentring Asia asks the reader to rethink the centre not as a single site towards which all is oriented, but as a zone of encounter, exchange and contestation.