Empire at the margins : culture, ethnicity, and frontier in early modern China / edited by Pamela Kyle Crossley, Helen Siu, and Donald S. Sutton.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 325-346) and index.

Part I. Identity at the heart of empire -- Ethnicity in the Qing Eight Banners / Mark C. Elliott -- Making Mongols / Pamela Kyle Crossley -- "A fierce and brutal people:" on Islam and Muslims in Qing law / Jonathan N. Lipman -- Part II. Narrative wars at the new frontiers -- The Qing and Islam on the western frontier / James A. Millward and Laura J. Newby -- The cant of conquest: Tusi offices and China's political incorporation of the southwest frontier / John E. Herman -- Part III. Old contests of the south and southwest -- The Yao wars in the mid-Ming and their impact on Yao ethnicity / David Faure -- Ethnicity and the Miao frontier in the eighteenth century / Donald S. Sutton -- Ethnicity, conflict, and the state in the early to mid-Qing: the Hainan highlands, 1644-1800 / Anne Csete -- Part IV. Uncharted boundaries -- Ethnic labels in a mountainous region: the case of She "bandits" / Wing-hoi Chan -- Lineage, market, pirate, and Dan: ethnicity in the Pearl River delta of south China / Helen F. Siu and Liu Zhiwei.

Annotation An edited collection analyzing crucial moments in the formation of cultural, regional and religious identities in China during the Ming the Qing dynasties. A common theme through the book is the dynamic interaction of local communities with the imperial state and with national elites.