All under Heaven; or, The Evolving World Ethos of a New Greater China

Abstract In 2022 and 2023, Duke University Press published three major works as part of its Sinotheory series. Ban Wang's book explored the political ethos of tianxia underlying the advent of the new rise of China. Pheng Cheah and Caroline S. Hau's volume of essays presented critical views of the latter in East Asia from the context of literary postcolonial theory, while Carlos Rojas and Lisa Rofel's volume surveyed the interdisciplinary landscape of China's globalist political economy, perhaps in light of recent history. Despite the mutual thematic overlap, each work interprets “China in the world” from inherently different perspectives. While they may resonate with wider discussions of nation-state, postcoloniality, and globalization elsewhere, this review essay argues that each work has its own problems of internal compatibility, especially when cast in its specific relevance or applicability to China. Instead of a sinotheory, the review essay argues that geopolitics can integrate cultural sociology as critical ethos.