ARI Working Paper Series

The essay examines foreign campaigns against Yunnan from the fourth century BCE to the fourteenth century from a global and long-term perspective. I argue that power struggles in the Eastern Eurasian continent to a great extent transformed Yunnan from a non-Chinese area into part of the Chinese empire. Thus, the transformation of Yunnan cannot be understood within the boundaries of national history. Indeed, the case of Yunnan shows the necessity of employing a global perspective into many border areas that linked diverse cultures and peoples.

Full text is not available, this working paper is withdrawn, as it has now been published as ‘Between Winds and Clouds: The Making of Yunnan’ (Second Century BCE -Twentieth Century CE), NY: Columbia University Press, 2008.