THE NORTHWEST QUESTION: CAPITALISM IN THE SANDS OF NATIONALIST CHINA

Abstract

At the onset of the Great Depression, right-wing intellectuals in China beseeched their compatriots to part ways with the decadence of coastal cities and rediscover their ancient homeland in the northwestern corner of their country. This article explores this intellectual reorientation through the speeches and essays of the leading Guomindang ideologue Dai Jitao, who retooled Sun Yat-sen's ideas of frontier development in order to address perceived crises of territoriality, capitalism, and spirituality. Dai's vision for a national revival structured around the material and cultural resources of the Northwest is shown to be crucial to his articulation of concepts shared with a global fascist current. In spite of widespread enthusiasm in the press and conservative intellectual circles, support for “Opening Up the Northwest” was uneven in Nanjing. To explain how this region ultimately remained underdeveloped, this article turns to the technocrat Weng Wenhao, who believed natural barriers and ecological frailty posed major challenges to economic development in the Northwest.