Culture, "race" and nation: the formation of national identity in twentieth century China.

Culture, "race" and nation: the formation of national identity in twentieth century China. Nationalism in the post-Tiananmen era is a worrying phenomenon thatmay be better understood when seen from a historical perspective. Beforewe examine the formation of national identity in twentieth centuryChina, however, it may be instructive to clarify what is understood bythe term nationalism. Nationalism, in its broadest sense, endows themembers of a national population, variously referred to as nation,people, nationality or even "race," with an identity which isthought to be unique and distinct from other population groups. Anation, however defined, is thus thought to be a relatively homogeneousentity with shared characteristics which transcend internal divisions ofclass, status and region. The criteria of membership of the nation,however, can vary enor mously, and the very elusive nature of nationalismis perhaps one of its greatest appeals, as it can be adapted to a greatvariety of different circumstances. Given the multifarious nature ofnationalism, it would be futile to try to define it by way of one oranother objective factor. As Liah Greenfeld underlines, there are asmany different forms of nationalism as there are definitions of whatconstitutes a nation: territory, language, culture, religion, history or"race," all are possible but not necessary factors in thecreation of national identity.(1)Rather than attempting to find a definition of the nation on thebasis of its constitutive constitutive/con¡¤sti¡¤tu¡¤tive/ (kon-stich¡äu-tiv) produced constantly or in fixed amounts, regardless of environmental conditions or demand. elements, the different organizing strategiesof nationalism can be more usefully distinguished. The sociologist JohnHutchinson John Hutchinson is the name of a number of notable people: John Hutchinson (writer), (1674-1737) an English writer John Hutchinson (Colonel), (1615-64) a leader in the 17th century Puritan revolt in Britain has highlighted two types of nationalism.(2) Politicalnationalism, or civic nationalism, explicitly concerned with theindividual rights of equal citizens, is based on a cosmopolitan andrationalist conception of the nation in which educated individuals areunited by common laws and mores. Civic nationalism anticipates a commonhumanity which transcends cultural differences, but in the meantime Adv. 1. in the meantime - during the intervening time; "meanwhile I will not think about the problem"; "meantime he was attentive to his other interests"; "in the meantime the police were notified"meantime, meanwhile accepts the division of the world in different political communities.Its objective is the construction of a representative state for thecommunity in order to participate as an equal nation in a developingcosmopolitan civilization based on reaso n. Cultural nationalism, incontrast, imagines the nation to have a distinctive civilization basedon a unique history, culture and territory. Nations, according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. cultural nationalists, are not merely rational political units, butorganic beings that have been endowed with a unique individuality whichshould be treasured by all its members: Nature and history, rather thanmere consent or law, are the passions which bind the individual to thenation. Cultural nationalism rejects the ideal of universal citizenshiprights and insists that the presumed natural divisions between nationsand within the nation be respected. As such, cultural nationalists seethe nation as an organic entity only in a metaphoric sense.In addition to these two typologies of nationalism, I would add athird one which can be called racial nationalism. Although racialnati onalists also represent the nation as a unique entity endowed bycosmology with a particular history and culture, they portray it aboveall as a pseudo-biological entity united by ties of blood.(3) In theirconflation (database) conflation - Combining or blending of two or more versions of a text; confusion or mixing up. Conflation algorithms are used in databases. of race and culture, racial nationalists represent culturalfeatures as secondary to and derivative of an imagined biologicalspecificity Biological specificityThe orderly patterns of metabolic and developmental reactions giving rise to the unique characteristics of the individual and of its species. . The individual is first ascribed a membership to thecommunity by virtue of a real or imagined congenital endowment, and onlysecondly on the basis of cultural features: National culture isperceived to be the product of a racial essence. Cultural nationalistsseek to integrate and harmonize notions of tradition and modernit y in anevolutionary vision of the community. In contrast, the positing of animmutable IMMUTABLE. What cannot be removed, what is unchangeable. The laws of God being perfect, are immutable, but no human law can be so considered. biological essence, based on a patrilineal patrilineal/pa¡¤tri¡¤lin¡¤e¡¤al/ (pat?ri-lin¡äe-il) descended through the male line. pat¡¤ri¡¤lin¡¤e¡¤aladj.Relating to, based on, or tracing ancestral descent through the paternal line. line of descent Noun 1. line of descent - the kinship relation between an individual and the individual's progenitorsfiliation, lineage, descentfamily relationship, kinship, relationship - (anthropology) relatedness or connection by blood or marriage or adoption ,allows racial nationalists to explicitly reject tradition and cultureand embrace a vision of modernity in an iconoclastic i¡¤con¡¤o¡¤clast?n.1. One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions.2. One who destroys sacred religious images. attack on the pastwhile preserving a sense of national uniqueness.These three different organizing strategies of nationalism canoverlap considerably and even alternate from one into the other. Sinceits inception in the late nineteenth century to its more recentmanifestations in the post-Tiananmen era, however, cultural and racialnationalism have very much dominated the cultural and political domainsin China. This article argues that a discourse of patrilineal descenthas emerged as a very powerful and cohesive form of national identity inChina which has been capable of transcending the extreme diversity ofreligious practices, family structures, spoken languages and regionalcultures of population groups that all define themselves as"Chinese." "Chineseness," in Taiwan, Singapore ormainland China, is primarily defined as a matter of blood and descent.One does not become Chinese like one becomes Swiss or Dutch, sincecultural integration (language) or political adoption (p assport) areboth excluded as means of becoming "Chinese."(4) Racialnationalism, of course, has undergone numerous permutations,reorientations and rearticulations since the end of the nineteenthcentury Its flexibility and variability is part of its enduring appeal,as it constantly adapts to different political and social contexts, fromthe racial ideology of an economically successful city-state likeSingapore to the eugenic eu¡¤gen¡¤icadj.1. Of or relating to eugenics.2. Relating or adapted to the production of good or improved offspring. policies of the Communist party Communist party, in ChinaCommunist party,in China, ruling party of the world's most populous nation since 1949 and most important Communist party in the world since the disintegration of the USSR in 1991. in mainlandChina. It is not suggested here that racialized senses of belonging werethe only significant forms of national identity available in China: Itshould be emphasized, however, that notions of culture , race and nationhave consistently been conflated throughout the twentieth century inefforts to portray cultural features as secondary to an imaginedbiological specificity. Far from being a mere copy or a "derivativediscourse" of a more "authentic" form of nationalism inthe West, narratives of blood and descent in China have always beenbased on the active reconfiguration of indigenous modes ofrepresentation. National identity has been actively reconstructed andendowed with indigenous meanings that are specific to China. Modernizingintellectuals in China drew inspiration from foreign culturalrepertoires, appropriated the language of nationalism, invested newideas with native meanings and nuances, reinterpreted modern politicalideologies, reconstructed their cultural heritage, and finally, activelyinvented their own versions of identity and modernity. Finally, thisarticle contends that racial nationalism thrived largely thanks to, andnot in spite of, folk models of identity, b ased on patrilineal descentand common stock. Instead of crude generalizations about the role of thestate in the spread of nationalism, which would have been disseminatedfrom top to bottom, or the popular "cloud to dust" theory ofcultural change, a degree of circularity, or reciprocal interaction,between popular culture and officially sponsored discourses of thenation is posited. More stable folk notions of patrilineal descent,which were widespread in late imperial China, were reconfigured from thelate nineteenth century onwards. Indigenous notions of identity werereinforced and enriched by the use of new vocabularies, as nationalistintellectuals selectively appropriated elements from the language ofscience. Lineage discourse was perhaps one of the most prominentelements in the construction of symbolic boundaries between populationgroups defined as nations.(5)The Yellow Emperor Yellow Emperor,Mandarin Huangdi, legendary Chinese ruler and culture hero; tradition holds that he reigned from 2697 B.C. to 2597 B.C. He is one of the mythical prehistoric emperors who supposedly created the basic elements of Chinese civilization. and the Nation-RaceIn a recent definition of "Chineseness," the prominentintellectual Su Xiaokang affirmed: "This yellow river, it sohappens, bred a nation identified by its yellow skin pigment. Moreover,this nation also refers to its earliest ancestor as the Yellow Emperor.Today, on the face of the earth, of every five human beings there is onethat is a descendant of the Yellow Emperor."(6) In SuXiaokang's definition, "Chineseness" is primarilyinterpreted as a matter of blood and descent. Cultural features, such as"Chinese civilization" or "Confucianism," arethought to be the product of that imagined biological group; they aresecondary and can be changed, reformed or even eradicated. Confucianscholar or socialist cadre, Hunanese peasant or Hong Kong Hong Kong(hŏng kŏng), Mandarin Xianggang, special administrative reg ion of China, formerly a British crown colony (2005 est. pop. 6,899,000), land area 422 sq mi (1,092 sq km), adjacent to Guangdong prov. entrepreneur,one will always be "Chinese" by virtue of one's brood,according to Su Xiaokang. The conflation of "race," descentand nation has been expressed throughout the twentieth century by theterm minzu, signifying both a descent group and a cultural community.Although the term minzu has been deployed in a diversity of contexts, itis most often used as something roughly equivalent to"nation-race" when used to describe "Chineseness."Distinctions between "race" (zhongzu) and"nation-race" (minzu) have clearly been important: The termrace refers to the presumed biological and genetic features of apopulation groups which generally transcend the level of nation-race. Inthe racial taxonomies which have been variously deployed in twentiethcentury China, the "yellow race" (huangzhong) is often seen tobe endowed with superior attributes in compari son to the "blackrace" (heizhong) and the "brown race" (zongzhong)."Nation-race" is seen as a sub-branch of a broader"race" distinguished by unique cultural features. Typically,"the Chinese" are seen as the core "nation-race"(zhonghua minzu For other uses, see Chinese nationality.Zhonghua minzu (Chinese: 中华民族; Pinyin: Zhōnghu¨¢ M¨ªnz¨²), is a Chinese term that refers to the notion of a Chinese nationality transcending ethnic divisions, with a central ) within a larger group defined as the "yellowrace." Often, however, notions of race and nation-race arecollapsed and "yellow" simply signifies "Chinese."As Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-sen(sn yät-sĕn), Mandarin Sun Wen, 1866–1925, Chinese revolutionary. He was born near Guangzhou into a farm-owning family. (1866 to 1925), the principal proponent of a Chinesenation-race, put it in his famous Three Principles of the People The Three Principles of the People (Traditional Chinese: 三 7665;主義; Hanyu Pinyin: Sān M¨ªn Zhǔy¨¬,"The greatest force is common blood. The Chinese belong to theyellow race because they come from the blood stock of the yellow race.The blood of ancestors is transmitted by heredity heredity,transmission from generation to generation through the process of reproduction in plants and animals of factors which cause the offspring to resemble their parents. That like begets like has been a maxim since ancient times. down through the race,making blood kinship Noun 1. blood kinship - (anthropology) related by bloodconsanguinity, cognationanthropology - the social science that studies the origins and social relationships of human beings a powerful force."(7) A textbook used inprimary schools in the beginning of the 1920s explained to its readersthat:Mankind is divided into five races. The yellow andwhite races are relatively strong and intelligent. Becausethe other races are feeble and stupid, they arebeing exterminated by the white race. Only theyellow race competes with the white race. This isso-called evolution....Among the contemporary racesthat could be called superior, there are only the yellowand the white races. China is [i.e., belongs to]the yellow race.(8)The great appeal of the notion of nation-race in China is no doubtdue to its indigenous nature, as it has been largely constructed on thebasis of the lineage institution. The Qing era (1644 to 1911) inparticular was marked by a consolidation of the cult of patrilinealdescent, which was the center of a broad movement of social reform thathad emphasized the family and the lineage (zu) since the collapse of theMing in 1644.(9) Considerable friction arose between lineages throughoutthe nineteenth century in response to heightened competition overnatural resources, the need to control market towns, the gradual erosionof social order and organizational disorders caused by demographicpressures. Lineage feuds, as well as interethnic con flicts, prevailedthroughout the empire, but were more common in the Southeast, where theinstitution of the lineage had grown more powerful than in theNorth.(10) The militarization mil¡¤i¡¤ta¡¤rize?tr.v. mil¡¤i¡¤ta¡¤rized, mil¡¤i¡¤ta¡¤riz¡¤ing, mil¡¤i¡¤ta¡¤riz¡¤es1. To equip or train for war.2. To imbue with militarism.3. To adopt for use by or in the military. of powerful lineages reinforced folkmodels of kinship solidarity, forcing in turn more loosely organizedassociations to form a unified descent group under the leadership of thegentry At court level too, ideologies of descent became increasinglyimportant, in particular with the erosion of a sense of culturalidentity among Manchu aristocrats. Racial identity through patrilinealdescent became important in the Qianlong period (1736 to 1795), when thecourt progressively turned towards a rigid taxonomy of distinct descentlines (zu) to distinguish between Han, Manchu, Mongol or Tibetan.(11)Within three distinct social leve ls, namely popular culture, gentrysociety and court politics, more stable folk notions of patrilinealdescent came to be used on a widespread scale in the creation andmaintenance of group boundaries.The construction of national identity during the last decade of thenineteenth century was mainly the work of the 1898 reformers, whochampioned a radical transformation of imperial institutions andorthodox ideology. In contrast to their precursors, they promoted analternative body of knowledge which derived its legitimacy independentlyfrom the official examination system. The product of a fusion betweendifferent indigenous strains of knowledge and foreign discursiverepertoires, the reformers promoted a racialized vision of the lineageinstitution. Modernizing reformers like Liang Qichao Liang Qichao (Chinese: 梁啟超, Li¨¢ng Qǐchāo; Courtesy: Zhuoru, 卓如; Pseudonym: Rengong, 任公) (February 23 1873–January 19 1929) was a Chin ese scholar, journalist, philosopher and reformist during the and Kang Youwei Kang Youweior K'ang Yu-wei(born March 19, 1858, Guangdong province, China—died March 31, 1927, Qingdao, Shandong) Chinese scholar, a key figure in the intellectual development of modern China. selectively appropriated scientific knowledge and actively manipulatedevolutionary theories to bolster theories of pure origins; theyreconfigured folk notions of patrilineal descent into a nationalidentity which represented all inhabitants of China as the descendantsof the Yellow Emperor. The semantic similarity Semantic similarity, is a concept whereby a set of documents or terms within term lists are assigned a metric based on the likeness of their meaning / semantic content. between zu as lineage andzu as race was rearticulated in a new identity called huangzu, meaningboth "lineage of the Yellow Emperor" and "yellowrace." Thriving on its affinity with lineage discourse, the notionof a nation-race th us gradually emerged as the most common symbol ofnational cohesion, permanently replacing more conventional emblems ofcultural identity.The myth of blood was further sealed by the turn of the century whenthe revolutionaries created a national symbol out of the Yellow Emperor.Liu Shipei, one of the most influential nationalist intellectuals, totake but one example, advocated the introduction of a calendar in whichthe foundation year corresponded to the birth of the Yellow Emperor."They [the reformers] see the preservation of religion as a handle,so they use the birth of Confucius as the starting date of the calendar;the purpose of our generation is the preservation of the race, so we usethe birth of the Yellow Emperor as a founding date."(12) Earlytwentieth century revolutionaries like Chen Tianhua infused kin terms,previouslyused in lineage discourse, into racial frames of reference to fosterthe much needed bonds of national loyalty: "The racial feelingcomes from birth onwar ds. For the members of one's own race, thereis surely mutual intimacy and love; for the members of a foreign race,there is surely mutual savagery and killing."(13) The idea ofnation-race integrated both the notion of people (min) and the fictionof descent (zu), and was seen by many nationalists in China as the onlyconcept capable of transcending gender, class and region to integratethe nation's subjects into a powerful community After the fall ofthe last dynasty in 1911, a growing number of nationalist intellectualsincreasingly invoked scientific categories of analysis in their searchfor national wealth and power. If the empire's prosperity waspreviously defined in terms of grain or silver, the nation-race was nowvalued as the main source of social and economic wealth, a force ofgreat potential which should be properly measured and managed bythe-state.(14) Although it is clear that individual writers, politicalgroups and academic institutions had different ideas about the me aningsof nationalism, many people in China had come to identify themselves andothers in terms of "nation-race" by the end of the Republicanperiod. The success of nationalism in China, in other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke"put differently , was theresult of a significant degree of convergence between popular cultureand officially sponsored discourses of race and of the reconfigurationof more stable notions of descent, lineage and genealogy. Itsfundamental role in the construction of racialized boundaries betweenself and other, its powerful appeal to a cultural sense of belongingbased on presumed immutable links of blood, its authoritative worldview world¡¤view?n. In both senses also called Weltanschauung.1. The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world.2. A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group. in which different peoples could be ranked into nation-races ( each withits own ancestor, territory and culture), all these different aspectsendowed nationalism with a singular resilience: It shaped the identityof millions of people in Republican China, as it had done for people inEurope and the United States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. .Racial frames of reference never disappeared from the People'sRepublic of China: Although the idea of "nation-race" wasofficially extended to include all the so-called "nationalminorities" living within the political boundaries of the country,in practice it has remained confined to the "Han" only.Similar to the racial taxonomies used by the reformers at the end of thenineteenth century "national minorities" are represented asless evolved branches of people who need the moral and politic alguidance of the "Han" in order to ascend on the scales ofcivilization. The representation of the "Han" as a more highlyevolved and better endowed nation-race has generally increased withinpopular culture, scientific circles and government publications in theDeng Xiaoping Deng Xiaopingor Teng Hsiao-p'ing(both: dŭng` shou`pĭng`), 1904–97, Chinese revolutionary and government leader, b. Sichuan prov. era.University students, in opposition to the government, have been themost prominent social group involved in one of the more recent attemptsto promote skin color as a marker of social status. Physical attacks anddemonstrations against African students on the university campuses ofthe People's Republic of China throughout the 1980s have been themost widely publicized feature of these racialized practices.(15) Farfrom being a manifestation of a vestigial ves¡¤tig¡¤i¡¤aladj.Occurring or persisting as a rudimentary or degenerate structure. form of xenophobia Xenopho biaBoxer RebellionChinese rising aimed at ousting foreign interlopers (1900). [Chinese Hist. , theseevents are an intrinsic part of racial nationalism which have beendiversely used in China since the end of the nineteenth century.Articulated in a distinct cultural site (university campuses) by aspecific social group (university students) in the political context ofthe reforms initiated by Ding Xiaoping since 1978, campus racismdemonstrates how contradictory discourses of "race" and"human rights" can be harnessed together in politicizedoppositions to the state. Six months after their mass demonstrationsagainst Africans in Nanjing, alleged to have violated the purityif' Chinese girls "daughters" of the "race"),students were occupying Tiananmen square Tiananmen Square,large public square in Beijing, China, on the southern edge of the Inner or Tatar City. The square, named for its Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen), contains the monument to the heroes of the revolution, the Grea t Hall of the People, the museum of in the name of the nation.Scientists, more recently have also contributed to the promotion ofracial definitions of national identity.(16) In their representation offolk notions of patrilineage pat¡¤ri¡¤lin¡¤e¡¤age?n.Line of descent as traced through men on the paternal side of a family.Noun 1. patrilineage - line of descent traced through the paternal side of the familyagnation as "science," many haverepresented Beijing Man at Zhoukoudian as the "ancestor" ofthe "mongoloid race Noun 1. Mongoloid race - an Asian raceMongolian race, Yellow racerace - people who are believed to belong to the same genetic stock; "some biologists doubt that there are important genetic differences between races of human beings" ." A great number of hominid hominidAny member of the zoological family Hominidae (order Primates), which consists of the great apes (orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos) as well as human beings. teeth, skullfragments and fossi l apes have been discovered from different sitesscattered over China since 1949, and these finds have been used tosupport the view that the "Han" nation-race today is in adirect line of descent from its hominid ancestor in China. Serological serologicalpertaining to or emanating from serology.serological testone involving examination of blood serum usually for antibody. studies are invoked to underline that the "Han" are the mainbranch of all the different population groups in China and that all"minority" groups ultimately belong to the "yellowrace": The political boundaries of the People's Republic ofChina, in other words, are claimed to to be founded on clear biologicalmarkers of genetic distance. Even Outer Mongolia has recently beenportrayed as an organic and integral part" of the "Chineserace" in a propaganda book called The Inside Story of OuterMongolia's Independence.(17) Within both intellectual circles andgovernment publications, the people of China are increasingly represented as the descendants of the Yellow Emperor. ContemporaryChina, in short, is not so much a civilization pretending to be astate," in the words of Lucien Pye, but rather an empire claimingto be a nation-race.(18)The Nationalist Intelligentsia and the Regeneration of theNation-raceAs with the formulation of a historicist ideology in many types ofcultural nationalism, racial nationalism in China has principally beenarticulated by modernizing intellectuals.(19) Posing as the moralregenerators of the nation-race and the very embodiment of its spirit,they have been instrumental in constructing new national identities intimes of social crisis, from the Reform Movement in 1898 and the NewCulture Movement in 1915 to the demonstrations on Tiananmen square in1989. Occasional a focus of opposition to the state in times ofpolitical crisis, sometimes forced to participate in its policies inorder to implement their vision of national revival, nationalistintellectuals are more conc erned with the revival of national culturethan with the construction of an autonomous state. The very essence ofthe nation is thought to be located in the racial and culturaluniqueness of the people, which should be resurrected from the bottomup, rather than constructed like a state from above. A profound sense ofcontempt for bureaucrats in particular, and the state in general, haspervaded the attitudes of modernizing intellectuals: Since thenation-race is claimed to have its own distinctive national culture,characterized by a long and uninterrupted history, only intellectualsare entitled to revive and maintain that common heritage. The imperialreformers in the 1890s, the new intelligentsia in the 1910s andintellectual circles in the Deng Xiaoping era typically establishedstudy societies, published cultural journals, founded publishing housesand organized institutions of learning to spread the national culture,educate the people to the history of the nation and warn the coun tryagainst the imminent extinction of the nation-race. Theself-identification of intellectuals with the cause of the country wasso intense that Zhang Binglin, a fervent nationalist active in the firsttwo decades of this century, even suggested that "Chineseculture" would disappear with his own death. A sense of nationalmission, messianic aspirations and an inflated ego on the part ofnationalist intellectuals has often clashed with the reality of theirown alienated position in society, leading to even more ferventnationalist claims of moral regeneration. Modernizing intellectuals,from the imperial reformers to today's dissidents, have beencrusaders animated by a grandiose vision of self-importance: They haverepresented themselves as the repositories of culture and the saviors ofthe nation. Self-criticism and self-loathing, from Chen Duxiu'sindictment of Confucianism to the Taiwanese intellectual Bo Yang'smore recent book entitled the Ugly Chinese, has also been common to many nationalist movements.(20) Public admission of national weakness andsensitivity are considered to be clear proof of the nation's ownmoral superiority. Feelings of self-deprecation, complaints about anexaggerated sensitivity and a sense of internal vengefulness havecharacterized cultural nationalism: Other nations are always thought tobe more united and free from complexes, as well as from any finesses ofcharacter and the burdens of over-intelligence.Condescension con¡¤de¡¤scen¡¤sion?n.1. The act of condescending or an instance of it.2. Patronizingly superior behavior or attitude.[Late Latin cond has not not only marked the nationalists' attitudetowards other peoples: It has also figured prominently in their approachtowards the community, always represented as uneducated"masses," coarse "peasants" or insincere in¡¤sin¡¤cere?adj.Not sincere; hypocritical.insin¡¤cerely adv. "pettypeople." Like their imperial predecessors, the intellectual elit inRepublican can China (1911 to 1949) firmly believed that the scholarshould operate on behalf of the whole of society. They were convincedthat national reconstruction was the responsibility of a select few.China, wrote the celebrated intellectual Hiu Shi in 1915, needed a formof government that would "enable the enlightened class of people toutilize their knowledge and talents for the education and betterment ofthe ignorant and indifferent." Jiang Menglin, a prominentnationalist and educator, commented that "our motto is governmentof the people, for the people, and by the educated class(21) Frombenevolent Confucian scholar to activist nationalist was only a smallstep.More important historically, this specialized elite has beeninstrumental in the formation of national identity. They have delimitednational culture, redefined group membership, recreated social hierarchyand rewritten history The history of the nation-race, in their view, hasbeen a long series of humiliating hu¡¤mil¡¤i¡¤ate?tr.v. hu¡¤mil¡¤i¡¤a t¡¤ed, hu¡¤mil¡¤i¡¤at¡¤ing, hu¡¤mil¡¤i¡¤atesTo lower the pride, dignity, or self-respect of. See Synonyms at degrade. encounters that demand to beredressed. Half a century before the emergence of nationalism in China,the scholar-official Feng Guifen (1809 to 1874) wrote about theintrusion of foreign powers: " We are shamefully humiliated hu¡¤mil¡¤i¡¤ate?tr.v. hu¡¤mil¡¤i¡¤at¡¤ed, hu¡¤mil¡¤i¡¤at¡¤ing, hu¡¤mil¡¤i¡¤atesTo lower the pride, dignity, or self-respect of. See Synonyms at degrade. by thefour [Western] nations, not because our climate, soil, or products areinferior, but actually because our people are inferior ... Ourinferiority is not due to nature, it is inferiority due to ourselves. Ifit were inborn inborn/in¡¤born/ (in¡äborn?)1. genetically determined, and present at birth.2. congenital.in¡¤bornadj.1. Possessed by an organism at birth.2. , it would be a shame, but a shame we could not doanything about. Since the inferiority is due to ourselves, it is still agreate r shame, but a shame we can do something about."(22) One ofthe first nationalists to propose the cultural regeneration of thecountry, Kang Youwei, even sent a memorandum to the throne in June 1898,invoking the sense of national humiliation: Foreigners have for sometime taken photographs to circulate among themselves and to laugh andsneer at our barbaric ways, But the most appalling and the mosthumiliating is the binding of women's feet, for which your servantfeels deeply ashamed."(23) His pupil and fellow reformer LiangQichao, in the preface to his Travel Notes on the New Continent, couldonly "sigh and weep when I compare our nation with theirs[America]."[24] Nationalism extends the sense of shame Noun 1. sense of shame - a motivating awareness of ethical responsibilitysense of dutyconscience, moral sense, scruples, sense of right and wrong - motivation deriving logically from ethical or moral principles that govern a person's thoughts and actions to everysubject of the nati on-race, mobilizing all around the fate of thenation. The theme of humiliation, still pervasive in China today,emerged as a consciously constructed emotion during the second half ofthe nineteenth century, and was given an emotional content through along and complex process of internalization InternalizationA decision by a brokerage to fill an order with the firm's own inventory of stock.Notes:When a brokerage receives an order they have numerous choices as to how it should be filled. and habituation habituationReduction of an animal's behavioral response to a stimulus, as a result of a lack of reinforcement during continual exposure to the stimulus. Habituation is usually considered a form of learning in which behaviours not needed are eliminated. . Humiliationimplied a sense of collective responsibility. The causes of failurecould be attributed to the nation's lack of effort or ability, notto external factors independent of human will. It promoted voluntariststrategies of n ational revenge. Self-accusation completed the idea ofcausal attribution. The nation-race exacerbated the feeling ofhumiliation by accusing itself of failure: "We Chinese are lessthan black slaves" was a common expression. Once infused with anemotional content, the feeling of humiliation was used as a catalyst. Itmobilized patriotism, promoted national solidarity, and addressed thesense of collective responsibility; it fostered outrage and createdresentment favorable to voluntarist action. National humiliation wasconsecrated by government officials as a national event during the firstdecades of this century, and the Ministry of Education had it written intextbooks to "instil humiliation into the pupils mind" inorder to arouse patriotism.(25) A few decades later, Mao Zedongproclaimed that "national consciousness, national self-respect andnational self-confidence are not sufficiently developed among the broadmasses."(26) Communist propaganda made sure that national identityfig ured at the top of the political agenda for decades after 1949.If China's national history was a long series of humiliationsthat should instil a sense of outrage in all national subjects, thenation-race clearly had its enemies. Constitutive outsiders have beenessential in the formation of national identity in twentieth centuryChina. Without the constant threat of national extinction at the handsof evil-minded outsiders, where indeed wouldbe the impulse to national union? Yan Fu, one of the most notedsocial reformers and a translator of English political philosophers, wasthe first to raise the threat of racial extinction by the end of thenineteenth century: "They will enslave en¡¤slave?tr.v. en¡¤slaved, en¡¤slav¡¤ing, en¡¤slavesTo make into or as if into a slave.en¡¤slavement n. us and hinder thedevelopment of our spirit and body ... The brown and black racesconstantly waver between life and death, why not the 400 million ofyellows?"(27) Whether a "white peril" leading toperm anent enslavement en¡¤slave?tr.v. en¡¤slaved, en¡¤slav¡¤ing, en¡¤slavesTo make into or as if into a slave.en¡¤slavement n. in the 1890s, an imperialist plot to carve thecountry up like a melon in the 1910s, a bourgeois capitalist attempt at"spiritual pollution" in the 1980s or a sinister ploy towards"peaceful evolution" in the 1990s, "the West" hasbeen constructed as the main enemy which the nation-race shouldresolutely combat. Here too, it would be wrong to see anti-imperialistdiscourse as a political strategy initiated by the state only: Recently,even opponents to the regimen have been eager to deploy racia categoriesof analysis as a unifying concept against the threat of "Westernculture. To take but one example, Yuan Hongbing, a lawyer at BeijingUniversity who was briefly detained in February 1994 and has become awell-known figure in the public dissident movement, recently called fora "new heroicism" in order to save "the fate of therace" and for a "totalitarian" regime w hich would"fuse the weak, ignorant and selfish individuals of the race into apowerful whole." According to Yuan, only purification through bloodand fire would provide a solution to China's problems: "on thebattlefield of racial competition the most moving clarion call is theconcept of racial superiority ... Only the fresh brood of others canprove the strength of one race."(28) A vision of nationalsuperiority was thus asserted against an imagined enemy called "theWest." Through a process of polarization, "the West" hasconstantly been forced into an artificial relationship of opposites withanother construct called "China.""The West," however, was also harnessed in the struggleagainst the enemy within, namely all the elements of"tradition" which were judged to be unfit for survival in anage of "modernity." Unambivalently characterized as either"Confucianism or "feudalism feudalism(fy`dəlĭzəm), form of political and social organization typical of Western Europe fr om the dissolution of Charlemagne's empire to the rise of the absolute monarchies. ," ideologies of the past hadto be abandoned, if not systematically destroyed, in order to propel thenation-race forward from its backwardness into the vanguard ofcivilization. In the Occidentalist discourse of the New Culture Movement(I 915 to 1924), which openly sought to introduce science and democracyinto China, for instance, iconoclastic ideas have been projected ontothe West, constructed as a homogeneous category which can be manipulatedas an external source of authority in the cultural demolition of thepast. The enemy within has thus been opposed with ideological toolsappropriated from the West. "Science," "democracy"or "communism," selected elements from the West have oftenbeen erected as a totem (figuratively or literally, as with the Goddessof Democracy on Tiananmen Square). They have encapsulated all frustratedideals, incorporated visions of the future and sanctioned the message ofc hange. The relationship to the West has thus been indirect and oblique,as much a product of cultural discourse as a result of social encounter.The very tension between these contradictory representations of"the West" as a source of good and evil has been at the rootsof national identity in China throughout the twentieth centuryNationalist sentiments have found a wider audience both within statecircles and within relatively independent intellectual spheres,particularly since the erosion of communist authority after theTiananmen incident. Racial nationalism arising in a potentially unstableempire with an embattled Communist party could have grave consequencesfor regional stability in that vital part of the world, as it reinforcesthe portrayal of outer China, from Taiwan to Tibet, as"organic" parts of the sacred territory of the descendants ofthe Yellow Emperor that should be defended by military power ifnecessary Similar to the first decades of this century, moreover, themulti plication of regional identities and the emergence of culturaldiversity could prompt a number of political figures to appeal toracialized senses of belonging in order to supersede To obliterate, replace, make void, or useless.Supersede means to take the place of, as by reason of superior worth or right. A recently enacted statute that repeals an older law is said to supersede the prior legislation. internal divisions.In contrast, multiple identities, free choice of ethnicity, ambiguity ingroup membership are not likely to appear as viable alternatives to moreessentialist models of group definition. National identity, it shouldalso be stressed, has often led to the rejection of hybridity, fluidityand heterogeneity in contemporary China. Racial and culturalnationalism, as was noted in the introductory comments, can nonethelessalternate and even lead to new forms of civic nationalism, as may be thecase with Taiwan today. For such a political movement to succeed on themainland, however, would require a commitment to democratic goals whichmay well be incompatible with the more narrow concerns of nationalistintellectuals and government circles alike. (1) Liah Greenfeld,Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UniversityPress The Harvard University Press is a publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. It was established on January 13, 1913. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. , 1992) U. 7-9.(2) John Hutchinson, The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism (London:Allen and Unwin, 1987) pp. 12-13. (3) I first proposed the term ofracial nationalism in Frank Dikotter, "Racial Nationalisms in EastAsia," The ASEN Bulletin, 7 (Summer 1994) pp. 8-10. (4) By"Chinese" and "Chineseness," I only refer topopulation groups who consider themselves to be "Han." Thereare many other population groups in the People's Republic of Chinawho do not consider themselves to belong to the "Han," such asthe Tibetans and the Uighurs. These different population groups areofficially referred to as "national minorities," a termuncritically replicated by social scientists outside China. It should beclear, however, that many of these population groups were a"majority" on the territory they occupied until their forcefulintegration or colonization by the Ming and Qing empires. The politicalboundaries of the People's Republic of China today stillapproximately correspond to the boundaries achieved by the Qing empirein the nineteenth century The term Zhongguoren, "people of theMiddle Kingdom," theoretically refers to all people living insideChina but is also limited in practice to the "Han," and cannotbe imposed upon these different population groups either, despiteofficial efforts by the government, since very few of them havevoluntarily elected to be part of that country (5) The followingsections are discussed in much greater detail in Frank Dikotter, TheDiscourse of Race in Modern Chi na, (London: C. Hurst; Stanford, CA:Stanford University Press; Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1992).(6) Su Xiaokang, "River Elegy," Chinese Sociolog andAnthropology, 24, no. 2 (Winter 1991-1992) p. 9. (7) Sun Yat-sen,Sanminzhuyi (Three Principles of the People) (Shanghai: ShangwuYinshuguan, 1927) pp. 4-5. (8) L. Wieger, Moralisme Officiel des Ecoles,en 1920, Hien-hien, 1921, p. 180, original Chinese text. (9) See ChowKai-wing, The Rise of Confucian Ritualism rit¡¤u¡¤al¡¤ism?n.1. The practice or observance of religious ritual.2. Insistence on or adherence to ritual.ritualismNoun in Late Imperial China:Ethics, Classics, and Lineage Discourse (Stanford: Stanford UniversityPress, 1994). (10) See H.J. Lamley, "Hsieh-tou: The Pathology ofViolence in South-Eastern China," Ch'ing-shih Wen-t'i, 3,no. 7 (Nov. 1977) pp. 1-39. (11) Pamela Kyle Crossley should be added to this article, to conform with Wikipedia's Manual of Style.Please discuss this issue on the talk page. , " TheQianlong Retrospect on the Chinese-Martial (Hanjun) Banners, "LateImperial China, 10, no. 1 (June 1989) pp. 63-107, and "Thinkingabout Ethnicity in Early Modern China," Late Imperial China, 11,no. 1 (June 1990) p. 20. (12) Liu Shipei, "Huangdi Jinian Zhuo(About a Calendar Based on the Yellow Emperor)," Huangdi Hun (TheSoul of the Yellow Emperor) 1904, p. 1. Reprint. Taipei: Zhonghua MinguoShiliao Congbian, 1968.(13) Chen Tianhua, Chen Tianhua Ji (Collected Works of Chen Tianhua)(Changsha: Hunan Renmin Chubanshe, 1982) p. 81. (14) On the intersectionof nationalism and sexuality in China, see Frank Dikotter, Sex, Cultureand Modernity in China (London: Hurst and Honolulu: University of HawaiiPress The University of Hawaiʻi Press is a university press that is part of the University of Hawaiʻi. , 1995). (15) See mini-symposium on "Racism in China,"including Frank Dikotter, "Racial Identities in China: Context andMeaning"; Barry Sautman, "Anti-Black Racism in Post -MaoChina"; and Michael J. Sullivan Some people have been named "Michael J. Sullivan": Michael J. Sullivan (Mayor), Mayor of Lawrence, Massachusetts Mike Sullivan (Wyoming), Governor of Wyoming Michael Sullivan (US Attorney), United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. , "The 1988-89 NanjingAnti-African Protests The Nanjing Anti-African protests were mass demonstrations and riots against African students in Nanjing, China, which lasted from December 1988, to the following January. Background : Racial Nationalism or National Racism?" inThe China Quarterly, no. 138 June 1994) pp. 404-447. (16) See FrankDikotter, "Racial Discourse in China: Permutations andContinuities" in Frank Dikotter, ed., The Construction of RacialIdentities in China and Japan (London: Hurst and Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press, forthcoming). (17) William J.E Jenner, "Past andPresent Political Futures for China," paper delivered at the 19thNational Conference of the Australian Institute of Int ernational Affairs(Sydney: 9 October 1993) p. 13 (18) Lucien W Pye, "China: ErraticState, Frustrated Society," Foreign Affairs, 69, no. 4 (Fall 1994)p. 58. (19) For an excellent sociological analysis of comparablefeatures of cultural nationalism in other countries, see JohnHutchinson, The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism (London: Allen andUnwin, 1987) chapter 1. (20) Bo Yang, Choulou de Zhongguoren (The UglyChinese) (Taipei: Linbai Chubanshe, 1985). (21) Both quotations aretaken from C.W Hayford, To the People: James Yen and Village China (NewYork New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of : Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is an academic press based in New York City and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by James D. Jordan ( 2004-present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fields of literary and cultural studies, , 1990) p. 12. (22) Feng Guifen,"Zhi Yangqi Yi" (Views Concerning the Manufacture of ForeignInstruments) in Jiaobinlu Kanjyi (Protests from the Jiaobin Studio)(Taipei: Wenhai Chubanshe, 1971) pp. 58b-59a. (23) Kang Youwei, KangYouwei Shiwen Xuan (Selected Poems and Writings of Kang Youwei) Beijing:Renmin Wenxue Chubanshe, 1990) p. 95. (24) Liang Qichao, "Xin DaluYouji" (Travel Notes on the New Continent) in Liang Qichao,Yinbingshi Zhuanji (Writings of Liang Qichao) (Shanghai: Zhonghua Shuju,1941) (25) Luo Zhitian, "National Humiliation and NationalAssertion: The Chinese Response to the Twenty-one Demands," ModemAsian Studies, 27, no. 2 (May 1993) pp. 309-11. (26) Mao Zedong,Selected Works, 2 (27) Yan Fu, Yan Fu Shiwen Xuan Selected Poems andWritings of Yan Fu) (Beijing: Renmin Wenxue Chubanshe, 1959) p. 22. (28)Yuan Hongbing, Huanguan Feng (Winds on the Plain) (Beijing: XiandaiChubanshe, 1990) p. 193, quoted in Geremie Barme, "To ScrewForeigners is Patriotic: China's Avant-garde Nationalists,"The China Journal, 34 (July