This book challenges the dominant view of the origins of nationalism, that is, that nationalism first emerged in the post-Enlightenment and industrialising West and spread to the rest of the world as an unintended consequence of imperialism and colonialism. It investigates experiences of East Asia through selected cases: Song China (960-1279), Korea focusing on the Koryŏ dynasty (918-1392) and the Imjin War (1592-1598), Japan in reference to the idea of Japan as shinkoku (a divine country) and the rise of Kokugaku in eighteenth century and the emergence of Taiwan as a political community.