Ankara in Chinese Imagination: Turkish Capital and Its Influence on ‘Temporary Capital’ Chongqing

Abstract

AbstractOn 13 October 1923, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey officially designated Ankara as the capital of the newly established Republic of Turkey. Ankara became the focal point for the implementation of Mustafa Kemal’s nation-building efforts. In December 1937, Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, was occupied by the Japanese Forces. the Nationalist Government decided to relocate the capital to Chongqing for similar reasons with Turkey back in 1923. To promote the decision of relocating the capital to Chongqing among the population some Chinese writers and journalists drew parallels between the situation in China and the precedent of Turkey’s own capital relocation. This article aims to investigate the parallels that existed in the context of the relocation of these respective capital cities. Specifically, how the Republican China’s decision to relocate its capital from Nanjing to Chongqing was influenced by the precedent of Turkey’s capital relocation in 1923.Keywords: TurkeyAnkaraChinaChongqingcapital city Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Richard Dennis, Cities in Modernity: Representations and Productions of Metropolitan Space, 1840–1930 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).2 Ismet Giritli, “Kemalism as an Ideology of Modernization” in Jacob M. Landau (ed), Atatürk and the Modernization of Turkey (USA: Westview Press, 1984), 251; L. Köker, Modernleşme, Kemalizm ve Demokrasi [Modernization, Kemalism and Democracy] (Istanbul: İletişim Publishing, 2004).3 Osman Okyar, “Atatürk’s Quest for Modernism” in J. M. 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Her research interests are focused on Chinese language, history, science in early-modern and modern China.Giray FidanGiray Fidan is a professor at the Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, Department of Eastern Languages and Literatures, Chinese Language and Literature. His research focuses on sinology, history, language and modernization in China.