On being Chinese and being complexified: Chinese IR as a transcultural project

Abstract While proponents of Chinese IR pursue a national school based on the identification Chineseness with culture, its critics find limited value in ‘Chinese’ as mere temporary site for non-Western agencies. In contrast, I argue distinctive and enduring is possible if it adopts non-national non-essentialised transcultural conception Chineseness. This first contested second ontology immanent humanity. has been fiction privileged descent from antiquity, which various contestants claimed by redefining meaning The shi elites, particular, developed an aspirational ethos that propelled to transcend cultural boundary incorporating foreign influences thereby rendered transcultural. Also, drawing ontological turn Roy Wagner's work anthropology, show how humanity transcends category transforming division innate nature constructed culture. IR, own complexity universal aspiration, uses history complexify both tradition internally other traditions externally, promoting pluralisation IR.