Philosophical analysis of the knowledge we hold of China, rather than philosophically informed disciplinary research on China, is a rare commodity. Area studies are, by definition, interdisciplinary. There is therefore no reason why philosophy cannot be a productive part of that interdiscipline. It would bean additional resource rather than a privileged perspective—an applied philosophy of area studies functioning rather like the philosophy of economics or politics. To exemplify what this might look like, the author considers some issues relating to images and beliefs about China in the West that generate particular philosophical problems relating to knowledge, truth, belief, and Otherness. These questions are important because there is a tendency today to conflate them. The author argues that the first three concepts are distinct, though not independent, and that it is worthwhile maintaining the distinction because it supports scholarship as a self-reflective critical process.
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