BOOK REVIEWS

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Globalizing South China, by Carolyn Cartier (2001). Cambridge, MA:
Blackwell. ISBN 1557868883.

In Globalizing South China, Carolyn Cartier challenges arguments of neo-liberal

pundits who have been praising Asian miracle economies. Cartier illustrates that a
meaningful examination of globalization cannot only be based on statistical indicators
but requires a geographically and historically situated analysis. Globalization does not
suddenly step into a region but is an intricately mediated process. Cartier’s argument
for a comprehensive analysis of globalizing processes and their local articulations en-
gages a number of topics, most important, the exploration of regional cultural
economies as transhistorical and transboundary phenomena, aspects of whose exis-
tence predate contemporary globalization. She recognizes “the totalizing qualities of
some globalization narratives” yet juxtaposes those to distinctive regional dynamics
and processes (p. 2).
Fundamental to Cartier’s analysis is the (geographical) region, conceptualized as
temporally and spatially flexible. Open concepts carry dangers of imprecision. Here,
however, these are outweighed by the advantages of a tool that accommodates spatio-
temporal fluctuations. Cartier’s regionality engages transhistorical, transboundary
movements of people and goods, and (re-)negotiations of regional ties. Cartier’s cen-
tral contribution is the theorization of the vital role of culture in regional economic
transformations. She states that “the transboundary cultural economy insists on a cul-
tural economy perspective to establish a regionality that interlinks culture, as a basis
of economic organization, with transboundary economic activity” (p. 19). Regional-
ity, with a strong cultural focus, conceptually accommodates contestations of particu-
lar spaces over time, allows for alternative spatialities that contradict political realities
and dominant discourses, and facilitates scaled regionalities.
Cartier illustrates how south China historically was (a) an area with a certain
homegeneity and recognized as such in China and beyond and (b) well connected
across the South Chinese Sea. Cartier argues that maritime economies are as impor-
tant, if not more so, than land-based economic and political processes in shaping re-
gional dynamics. For centuries, south China had been oriented toward the sea, as mer-
chant ships had navigated the South Chinese Sea and regularly visited many ports.
Chinese regional dominance between the 14th and the early 20th centuries turned nu-
merous states into Chinese tributary entities. This tributary system marked the realm
of a Chinese regional world order where tribute was “also a form of imperial trade,
which made tribute relations a mode of diplomacy and economic exchange” (p. 91).
This tributary system forms one building block for current globalization. Taking the
example of Melaka, Cartier shows how intense, diverse, and long-lasting (but also flex-

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ible) regional ties, often based on common places of origin, are in the scaled south
China region. Chinese diaspora communities were and are engaged in complex nego-
tiations over a “place-based cultural identity, formed in the reach of social relations,
between local Melakan identities and the homeland region on the south China coast,
transhistorically tied in the reality and memory of Zheng He’s travels” (p. 164).
Cartier’s theorization of cultural identities and their localized (re-)negotiations facil-
itates an analysis of economic transformations that is rooted in the specificities of his-
toricized spatialities. Recognizing this web of transhistorical, place-based political,
economic, and cultural dynamics, it is only too obvious that recent processes of glob-
alization, instead of constructing new networks, were better advised by inserting
themselves into existing ones.
It comes as no surprise that when the Chinese leadership under Deng Xiaoping
opted for economic reform in 1978, they first opened up sites in south China for
transnational ventures. Reformers tried to limit the influence of such ventures by des-
ignating special economic zones to contain these enterprises. However, cities and com-
munities recognized loopholes in this scheme, and “zone fever” broke out (p. 205). De-
spite legal restrictions, land conversions gained momentum and resulted in concerns
about food security in the face of tremendous loss of agricultural land. Land specula-
tion became immensely profitable until the government attempted to curb these de-
velopments by a moratorium on land conversion and a revised land law. The land
speculation conflict exemplifies tensions between globalizing forces and local inter-
ests. Unlike other countries, China tried to control globalization processes, or at least
frame them in a Chinese political discourse. This controversy demonstrates a scaled
struggle between provincial/lower level administrational bodies, national political
bodies, and global economic interests. Cartier suggests that the new land law might be
a precursor to the “end to the era of the idea of a ‘miracle’ economy in south China,”
and possibly be the foundation of a new “national financial security” (p. 227).
I came to this book not by way of China studies but through an interest in theo-
rizing globalization. Some might object to such a transboundary scholarly venture,
and I recognize potential shortcomings. However, I found this book inspiring for an
examination of globalization in any region. For example, a regional analysis of the
Eastern Mediterranean or of trading networks in the East African–Arab
Peninsula–South Asian maritime economy as transhistorical regional cultural
economies could greatly benefit from Cartier’s excellent theorization.
—Petra Kuppinger
Monmouth College

One Place After Another: Site Specific Art and Locational Identity, by Miwon
Kwon (2002). Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

For scholars of meaning of place, this text is another route into that debate. Al-
though site-specific art may be unfamiliar material for many cultural theorists, geog-
raphers, and so forth, Kwon’s work on locational identity offers significant new in-
sights into fabricating real-world expressions of place.
This attractive new text is a critical history of site-specific art since the 1960s. Art
as a product for commercial transaction is redressed. By definition, this is art that is