This book offers an intimate portrait of early twentieth-century Harbin, a city in Manchuria where Russian colonialists, and later refugees from the Revolution, met with Chinese migrants. The deep social and intellectual fissures between the Russian and Chinese worlds were matched by a multitude of small efforts to cross the divide as the city underwent a wide range of social and political changes.

Using surviving letters, archival photographs, and rare publications, this book also tells the personal story of a forgotten city resident, Baron Roger Budberg, a physician who, being neither Russian nor Chinese, nevertheless stood at the very centre of the cross-cultural divide in Harbin. The biography of an important city, fleshing out its place in the global history of East-West contacts and twentieth-century diasporas, this book is also the history of an individual life and an original experiment in historical writing.

About the Author
Mark Gamsa is an associate professor in the School of History at Tel Aviv University.

Reviews

"This is a fascinating and well-researched exploration of the Russian [and] Chinese cultural encounter in Harbin, based on the extensive use of sources in both Russian and Chinese."

-- Austin Jersild, Old Dominion University * H-Soz-Kult *

"Specialists will draw much eclectic material about Harbin from Gamsa and enjoy the author's often insightful ideas about cross-cultural contact and more."

-- David Wolff, Hokkaido University * Slavic Review *

"There are many reasons to like this book. The writing is elegant, with frequent memorable turns of phrase. The research in Russian, Chinese, and European-language sources is deep and rich, and Gamsa's feel for his subject is remarkable. One senses on every page his balanced affection for Harbin and even for Budberg, despite his frankness about their many shared imperfections."

-- Willard Sunderland, University of Cincinnati * Journal of Modern History *
"The book builds on impressive research, contains stimulating discussions of the relationship
between biography and general history, and thus deserves to be read not only as the story of a remarkable man but also, more broadly, as a fascinating attempt to understand the life of an individual in the context of his multicultural environment." -- Stig Thogersen, Aarhus University * H-Net Reviews *
"Harbin: A Cross-Cultural Biography is a remarkable feat of research across multiple languages and archives, as well as a compellingly original, stylishly written, and surprisingly intimate book." -- Edward Tyerman, University of California, Berkeley * Twentieth-Century China *

"The book is a masterful analysis of the consequences that traumatic shifts in power relations could have for the life of individuals."

-- N. Pianciola, Nazarbayev University * Slavonic and East European Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9781487544249
Author Mark Gamsa
Format Paperback
Page Count 394
Imprint University of Toronto Press
Publisher University of Toronto Press
Weight(grams) 520g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 24mm