South of the Sea: Hainan Island in Spatial Imaginations and Cultural Representations

From the vantage point of the mainland, Hainan Island has long been cast as an insignificant frontier—a tropical tabula rasa waiting for the transformative hand of the state. Yet, beneath the grand state-orchestrated plans for free trade ports and glamorous tourism lies a far more complex reality. South of the Sea: Hainan Island in Spatial Imaginations and Cultural Representations is a groundbreaking, interdisciplinary exploration that rescues Hainan from the margins of Chinese history and places its “islandness” at the very center of scholarly inquiry.

Moving beyond traditional military and political narratives, this work employs a bold “island studies” framework to deconstruct the power dynamics that have shaped Hainan’s identity from the 16th century to the late 20th century. Pan Lu masterfully parses a rich array of representations—from ancient cartography and colonial travelogues to early documentary photography and revolutionary cinema—to reveal how the island has been imagined, exoticized, and contested by diverse observers. The book traverses a fascinating historical trajectory: exploring how Ming and Qing maps defined imperial boundaries; how 19th-century travellers grappled with “modern island anxiety” amidst tropical disease; and how Japanese colonial planners and Cold War strategists alike viewed the island as a critical geopolitical pawn. By analyzing feature films and documentary images, Pan further highlights the fluid agency of marginalized voices, including women and the Li ethnic group, who found empowerment within the island’s unique borderland setting.

Suited for scholars of geography, cultural studies, history, and cinema studies, as well as general readers interested in the Asia-Pacific, South of the Sea offers a timely and critical intervention. It challenges continent-centric mappings of China and provides a vital, interconnected perspective on the relationships between the Chinese mainland, Southeast Asia, and the broader maritime world. This is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand the historical roots and future possibilities of one of Asia’s most captivating yet underdiscussed islands.

• Lu Pan, Author

  Lu Pan is associate professor in the Department of Chinese History and Culture at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

• By placing Hainan within an archipelagic framework, this manuscript offers a fresh perspective on the island’s historical and contemporary significance in maritime Asia. Combining innovative theoretical insights with impressive archival research, it extends Inter-Asia debates on inter-referentiality, recovers understudied sources such as the genglubu, and provides a powerful account of island histories and geopolitical contestations beyond continental and Western-centered perspectives.
  —Chih-ming Wang, Academia Sinica
• A brilliant, insightful, and kaleidoscopic account of Hainan, this book offers a rich and engaging history of the island and its culture in modern times while situating it within the longer sweep of imperial history. Drawing on the interdisciplinary field of island studies, the author brings together cartographic history, travel writing, anthropology, film studies, and the histories of Japanese and Chinese imperial development to create a complex and rewarding portrait of this important island in the South China Sea. Through an impressive range of sources and innovative methods, Pan reveals the island and its people as worthy of sustained attention, offering a carefully textured study that restores Hainan to the foreground of regional and global histories. Original, deeply researched, and intellectually ambitious, this book provides a compelling new perspective on a place too often relegated to the margins.
  —Jeremy Murray, California State University, San Bernadino