Far from being a negligible aspect of contemporary identity, racialised senses ofbelonging have often been the very foundation ofnational identity in East Asia in the twentieth century. As this volume shows, the construction of symbolic boundaries between racial categories has undergone many transformations in China and Japan, but the attempt to rationahse and rank real and imagined differences between population groups remains widespread.

In an era of economic globalisation and political depolarisation, racial discrimination has increased in East Asia, affecting the human rights of marginahsed groups and collective perceptions of the world order. The historical background and contemporary implications of these potentially explosive issues are addressed.