Anti-Manchu Revolution: Transnational Networks, Ethnonationalism, and the Making of the Chinese State, 1903-1913

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Restricted (Penn State Only)
Author:
Douthitt, Matthew
Graduate Program:
History
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
May 13, 2026
Committee Members:
Amy Greenberg, Program Head/Chair
Ronnie Hsia, Outside Field Member
Charlotte Eubanks, Outside Unit Member
Kathryn Merkel-Hess Mcdonald, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Cathleen Cahill, Major Field Member
Keywords:
China
Manchu
Han
Revolution
Nationalism
Ethnicity
1911
xinhai
huaqiao
huaqiaomen
overseas
tongmenghui
violence
newspapers
young china
transnational
qing
empire
Abstract:
Nationalist historiography of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution portrays Sun Yat-sen and the overseas revolutionary organization, the Tongmenghui, as the chief architects of the Qing Empire’s overthrow. This interpretation casts the revolution as being orchestrated by a small group of exiled intellectuals from overseas. These state-centric narratives, however, obscure the turbulent nature of partisan violence in favor of linear storytelling and the elevation of select individuals as national heroes. This dissertation explores the seldom-discussed yet pervasive circulation of revolutionary propaganda and its relationship to extraterritorial violence preceding and in the decade following the Xinhai Revolution. By deterritorializing the anti-monarchical movement, my research seeks to recontextualize the revolutionary role of overseas Chinese communities (huaqiaomen) in the anti-monarchical revolutions of the early twentieth century. Far from constituting a centralized organization, the Tongmenghui served as an umbrella for diverse political groups, loosely united by a shared commitment to Han ethnonationalism and anti-Manchuism. Chinese émigrés spread across the globe formed transnational clandestine networks designed to disseminate revolutionary propaganda and facilitate the participation of huaqiaomen in the forthcoming revolution. Tongmenghui-affiliated newspapers formed the core of these networks, using local presses to rapidly expand their circulation and, with it, their influence across the Han diaspora. Revolutionary newspapers primarily sought to undermine the assimilationist rhetoric of constitutional reformers while encouraging huaqiaomen to embrace anti-Manchuism and revolutionary violence. While students and migrant workers supported the movement through arms smuggling and the circulation of propaganda, those who returned to the Qing Empire to carry out acts of violence were openly celebrated. The publication of these martyr narratives not only sought to mobilize further participation among the huaqiaomen but also formed part of the Tongmenghui’s broader efforts to control the revolutionary narrative and influence the political future of the republic.