Yi Wang puts the colonization of Inner Mongolia in a new context: world markets, capital, land, and labor. Her documentation of capitalist agriculture in the Hetao region makes a powerful intervention in debates over China's premodern economy.
— Christopher Atwood, University of Pennsylvania
In this theoretically sophisticated study, Yi Wang marshals a stunning array of sources—from corporate legal documents to folksongs—to reveal the fascinating history of the colorful cast of characters—including Manchu officials, Chinese irrigation entrepreneurs, Russian merchants, and Belgian missionaries—who played a role in integrating Inner Mongolia into the Qing state. In so doing, she reveals not only how the global processes of imperialism, capitalism, environmental degradation, migration, and nationalism shaped this particular borderland region but also how Inner Mongolia was the crucible that forged modern China.
— Johan Elverskog, Southern Methodist University
If you haven't thought of the Chinese as settler-colonists, think again. Yi Wang explores in remarkable depth one of the great frontier movements of modern times, the Chinese colonization of Mongolia, with a passion reminiscent of Owen Lattimore. Her careful account of how the Mongols lost their lands—under relentless pressure by Chinese merchants, the global economy, and the centralizing Chinese state—gives us a clear example of how Chinese ‘secondary imperialism’ worked.
— Peter C. Perdue, Yale University