Contemporary History of the Daur People: Chinese Historiography Reviewed

Abstract

Introduction. The paper analyzes available Chinese-language scientific works that review contemporary history of the Daur people and examine its different aspects. Goals. The study attempts a historiographic analysis of certain Chinese-language scholarly publications (monographs, articles) dealing with contemporary history of the Daurs. So, the objectives be set and tackled thereto shall include insights into peculiarities of Chinese historiography pertaining to contemporary Daur history, reviews of monographs containing related materials, and analyses of Chinese scientists’ articles considering significant events and facts of 20th-century Daur history. Conclusions. The paper shows China’s historiography of contemporary Daur history is abundant in scientific works, both monographs and diverse articles. Peculiarities inherent to regional collections of articles largely authored by ethnic Daurs result, in our opinion, from that the shaping of historiographical science in the PRC remains somewhat incomplete. The monographs undoubtedly contain a large amount of factual materials on many aspects of contemporary Daur history. However, those are distinguished by the traditional Chinese approach to the study of history characterized by that chronologies of events (chronicles) and biographies of famous figures hold central and unshakable positions. The articles also contain various facts, descriptions of specific historical events and characters, e.g., the peasant uprising of Shaolang and Daifu, biographies of the revolutionary Guo Daofu (Merse), participation of Daurs in the anti-Japanese movement. Another peculiarity traced is that the articles widely use data collected from informants, which is supposedly due to that Chinese sources covering regional history are few enough, and the special value of information provided by participants or eyewitnesses of those events.