http://www.cambridge.org/cn/academic/subjects/history/east-asian-history/ancient-china-and-yue-perceptions-and-identities-southern-frontier-c400-bce50-ce?format=HB#bookPeople

In this innovative study, Erica Brindley examines how, during the period 400 BCE–50 CE, an embryonic Chinese empire interacted with peoples referred to as the Yue/Viet along its southern frontier. Brindley provides an overview of current theories in archaeology and linguistics concerning the peoples of the ancient southern frontier of China, the closest relations on the mainland to certain later Southeast Asian and Polynesian peoples. Through analysis of warring states and early Han textual sources, she shows how representations of Chinese and Yue identity invariably fed upon, and often grew out of, a mutually defining process of centering the self while de-centering the other. Examining rebellions, pivotal ruling figures from various Yue states, and key moments of Yue agency, Brindley demonstrates the complexities involved in identity formation and cultural hybridization in the ancient world and the ancestry of cultures associated with southern China and Vietnam to the present day.

A new critical approach to understanding identity along the ancient southern frontier of China

Introduces important social science research on the ancient peoples and cultures of southern East Asia

Uses the textual record to challenge existing theories based on archaeology and linguistics