Yugoslavia and China Histories, Legacies, Afterlives

Note from the Editors          

List of Illustrations

Note on Transliteration

Timeline

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations

Re-thinking Yugo-Chinese Relations Past and Present

Dragan Pavlićević and Anastas Vangeli

Part I. Context

1. Sino-Yugoslav Relations and the Global Cold War

Jovan Čavoški

2. Nansilafu in the Chinese World-building

Ivica Bakota

Part II. Evolution of Relations

3. Key Junctures in Sino-Yugoslav Relations: 1948, 1958, and 1968

Zvonimir Stopić

4. Yugoslavia and China’s Early Reform Period (1977–1980)

Dragan Pavlićević and Vladimir Milić

5. Self-Determination, Centralisation, and Sovereignty: What The Chinese Communist Party of China Learned from Yugoslavia’s Dissolution?

Federico Brusadelli

6. The Legacy of China-Yugoslavia Relations and its Impact on China’s Ties with Successor States

Peng Yuchao and Xu Gang

Part III. Socio-Cultural Encounters

7. Through Mistrust, Resistance, and ‘Spring Tide’: A Brief History of Sino-Yugoslav Cultural Cooperation in the 1950s

Jovana Bogojević

8. Local-level Sino-Yugoslav Exchanges from 1977 to 1985: Insights from Shanghai’s Municipal Archives

Zhou Yuguang

9. Sino-Yugoslav Friendship and Contemporary Chinese tourism: Perspectives from Online Chinese Travelogues and Local Tourism Operators

Nicole Talmacs

Part IV. Legacy Ventures

10. Narratives of the Sino-Yugoslav Past in Discourses on the Contemporary Sino-Serbian “Ironclad Friendship”: the Rise of Sino-Yugo-nostalgia

Jelena Gledić

11. Never too Late? Bor’s Transformation and the Quest for Sustainability of Sino-Serbian “Copper Friendship”

Ren Canying

12. The Internationalisation of Socialist enterprises: Convergent Legacies, Divergent Developments and (Un)surprising Encounters

Igor Rogelja and Martina Bofulin

Reflection: From Pericentricity towards Possibilism: Legacies, Afterlives and Alterlives of Yugo-Chinese Normative Encounters

Anastas Vangeli

About the Contributors

Index

Biography

Anastas Vangeli is an assistant professor at the University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business in Slovenia. He is also a non-resident senior fellow with the TOChina Hub, Turin, Italy; a research fellow at the ESSCA EU-Asia Institute, Angers, France; a research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research, University Ss Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, North Macedonia; and member of the European Think Tank Network on China (ETNC). He is an associate editor of Asia Europe Journal and editor of The Role of China in Southeast Europe (2022).

Dragan Pavlićević is an associate professor at the Department of China Studies at Xi'an Jiaotong - Liverpool University in Suzhou, China. He is the author of Public Participation and State Building in China: Case Studies from Zhejiang (Routledge, 2020), and co-editor of The China Question: Contestations and Adaptation and Social Relations and Political Development in China: Change and Continuity in the “New Era” (Routledge, 2020).

"This important edited collection explores many aspects of the historical and contemporary relationship between Yugoslavia (and the post-Yugoslav space) and China, a topic that has had far too little attention paid to it by historians, international relations scholars, and those who focus on socialist worldmaking. The whole is very much more than the sum of its parts with geopolitical overviews or what might be termed “diplomatic history” brilliantly complemented by chapters that focus much more on cultural, intellectual, and touristic exchanges. The book also takes economic relations seriously without ever lapsing into an economic determinism. The book will be a crucial reference point, not merely for those hoping to understand Chinese-Yugoslav relations but, equally importantly, for anyone seeking to get to grips with the rise of China as a global superpower in a rapidly changing multipolar world. As such, it will be required reading not only for students and scholars but, also, for politicians, policy makers, activists and concerned publics everywhere."

- Paul Stubbs, Emeritus Senior Research Fellow, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb. Editor of Socialist Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Movement: social, cultural, political, and economic imaginaries.

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"An excellent book, essential reading for those who wish to understand how the past remains a living matter. Even when a country disintegrates and thus disappears from political map of the world - which was the case with Yugoslavia - it continues to be present in memories, imaginations and practices that influence international relations. The authors introduce new and useful concepts and present a powerful analysis of histories of Yugo-Chinese relations. A must read!"

- Dejan Jović, Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Zagreb University. Author of Introduction to Yugoslavia.

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“Yugoslavia and China: Histories, Legacies, Afterlives,” masterfully edited by Anastas Vangeli and Dragan Pavlićević, offers a ground-breaking exploration of Sino-Yugoslav relations that transcends conventional Cold War narratives. This meticulously researched volume unearths the complexities of diplomatic, ideological, and socio-cultural ties between two socialist states. Through multidisciplinary lenses, spanning archival revelations, cultural exchanges and contemporary economic ventures, the contributors illuminate pivotal moments, from the initial suspicion to post-socialist legacies shaping China’s current “ironclad friendship” with Serbia. Particularly compelling are the book’s analyses of local-level interactions, self-determination debates, and the resonance of Yugoslav models in China’s reform era. A vital resource for scholars of international relations, this book bridges historical scholarship with urgent questions about socialist solidarity, globalization, and China’s evolving role in the Balkans and beyond. Timely, insightful, and indispensable.

- Song Weiqing, Associate Professor, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China. Editor of The European Union in the Asia Pacific and China’s Relations with Central and Eastern Europe.

 

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"This book takes the vital yet under-appreciated China-Yugo connection seriously, from the NAM era to the present, and makes a valuable contribution to our knowledge of their combined histories, legacies, and afterlives.  It will be of major interest to scholars of these areas and to those studying international relations, politics, history, and the interplay of socialist legacies and capitalist dynamics today. Refreshingly, the contributors argue collectively that Yugoslavia shaped China’s self-understanding; but also that their intertwined yet fluid connections challenge Eurocentric or orientalist as well as presentist understandings."

- Daniel F. Vukovich, Director, China, Humanities, and Global Studies Research Hub, Hong Kong University, author of China and Orientalism: Western Knowledge Production and the PRC and Illiberal China: The Ideological Challenge of the P.R.C.