Chenchen Zhang, "Easting the West: Theorizing the Postliberal Conjuncture from China" (Oxford UP, 2026)

With commentary on the emergence of a ‘multipolar’ world, of

transatlantic rifts and the rise of ‘middle powers’ ubiquitous, tales of

the decline of something called ‘the West’ seem to be everywhere. Yet

the meanings the idea of ‘the West’ acquires in spaces beyond it tell us

at least as much about the state of the world as portents of its

demise.

Based on a combination of cultural analysis of historical

writings and—most strikingly—deep immersion in often very spicy Chinese

social media fora, Chenchen Zhang’s new book Easting the West: Theorizing the Postliberal Conjuncture from China (Oxford

University Press, 2026) theorises the shifting significations ascribed

to ‘the West’ in China since the late-imperial collision with European

empires. Whether imagined as a source of modernity, a colonial