Assertive Nationalism and China's Core Interests
- LAST REVIEWED: 24 May 2017
- LAST MODIFIED: 24 May 2017
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199920082-0143
- LAST REVIEWED: 24 May 2017
- LAST MODIFIED: 24 May 2017
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199920082-0143
Introduction
After 2008, many scholars noticed that Beijing became more willing to respond to popular nationalist calls in pursuing the so-called core national interest and to adopting tougher measures in maritime territorial disputes with its Asian neighbors. Scholars pointed out that the main reason is that pursuing core interest became the common goal of state nationalism and popular nationalism. The characteristics of the studies on Chinese nationalism in the field of political science and area studies is that the scholars tend to be more interested in the transformation of Chinese nationalism and its impact on Chinese foreign policy, instead of adopting general theory on nationalism or analyzing the substance of Chinese nationalism and how it differs from other states. In this bibliography, the authors first trace the studies on Chinese nationalism to see how these works reflect the actual development of Chinese nationalism. Second, it introduces the recent trend of studies on assertive nationalism. The third section introduces scholars’ works that focus on how China defines and pursues its core interests and how assertive nationalism brought impacts to the territorial dispute. In the last section, the authors focus on those works that link Chinese assertive nationalism to China’s foreign policy toward the United States and Japan.
Literature Review of Chinese Nationalism
In this bibliography, the authors adopt Zhao’s (Zhao 2008, cited under Typology of Chinese Nationalism) definition of nationalism as “a set of modern ideas that centers people’s loyalty upon the nation-state, either existing or desired.” Thus most scholars argue that it did not exist in China before the 19th century because China was an empire, not a nation-state. However, the definitions of Chinese nationalism and the content of national identity in China remain contentious in the existing literature. As Carlson 2009 and Shen and Cheung 2007 indicate, China specialists tend to treat Chinese nationalism as a particular case and do not adopt the general theory of nationalism. Scholars argue that it is because of the historical uniqueness of China. First, China was never fully colonized, unlike most developing countries. Second, China inherited the legacy of an empire, indicated by Tang and Darr 2012. The literature of Chinese nationalism first appeared in the 1950s, when scholars analyzed the nature of the Chinese communist revolution. Schwartz 1951 is a pioneer work in the effort to point out the crucial importance of nationalism in the Chinese communist-led revolution. Johnson 1962 argues that mass nationalism was an integral part of the communist revolution. The importance of nationalism to the Chinese communist revolution became conventional knowledge. The following sections review the literature on Chinese nationalism chronologically.
Carlson, Allen. “A Flawed Perspective: The Limitations Inherent Within the Study of Chinese Nationalism.” Nations and Nationalism 15.1 (2009): 20–35.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8129.2009.00376.x
The author points out previous work on Chinese nationalism has been undermined by a number of major flaws and then advocates that scholars turn to study the broader question of national identity formation.
Johnson, Chalmers. Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power: The Emergence of Revolutionary China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1962.
Based on secret Japanese archives, the author provides a more systematic explanation of the success of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in mobilizing mass support during the Anti-Japanese War. He argues that the structural or institutional factor permitted mass mobilization by the CCP was nationalist identity and a patriotic desire to resist the Japanese invaders.
Schwartz, Benjamin. Chinese Communism and the Rise of Mao. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1951.
This is one of the early works referring to Chinese nationalism. The author argues that nationalism played an important role in the Chinese communist-led revolution.
Shen, Simon, and Mong Cheung. “Reshaping Nationalism: Chinese Intellectual Response Towards Sino-American and Sino-Japanese Relations in the Twenty-First Century.” The Pacific Review 20.4 (2007): 475–497.
DOI: 10.1080/09512740701671979
This paper argues that three separate nationalist processes are occurring concurrently but independently of each other: the construction of civic nationalist values, the development of an international relations strategy assigning responsible power to China, and the detection of alleged anti-Chinese conspiracies.
Tang, Wenfang, and Benjamin Darr. “Chinese Nationalism and its Political and Social Origins.” Journal of Contemporary China 21.77 (2012): 811–826.
DOI: 10.1080/10670564.2012.684965
This article first analyzes the unique political and social origins of Chinese nationalism. Then, using the 2008 China Survey, it examines Chinese respondents’ feelings toward their country and how such feelings are related to their democratic values. The findings show that nationalism in contemporary China serves as a powerful instrument in impeding public demand for democratic change.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- 1989 People's Movement
- Aesthetics
- Agricultural Technologies and Soil Sciences
- Agriculture, Origins of
- Ancestor Worship
- Anti-Japanese War
- Architecture, Chinese
- Assertive Nationalism and China's Core Interests
- Astronomy under Mongol Rule
- Book Publishing and Printing Technologies in Premodern Chi...
- Buddhism
- Buddhist Monasticism
- Buddhist Poetry of China
- Budgets and Government Revenues
- Calligraphy
- Central-Local Relations
- Ceramics
- Chiang Kai-shek
- Children’s Culture and Social Studies
- China and Africa
- China and Peacekeeping
- China and the World, 1900-1949
- China's Agricultural Regions
- China’s Soft Power
- China’s West
- Chinese Alchemy
- Chinese Communist Party Since 1949, The
- Chinese Communist Party to 1949, The
- Chinese Diaspora, The
- Chinese Nationalism
- Chinese Script, The
- Christianity in China
- Civil Society in China
- Classical Confucianism
- Collective Agriculture
- Concepts of Authentication in Premodern China
- Confucius
- Confucius Institutes
- Consumer Society
- Contemporary Chinese Art Since 1976
- Corruption
- Criticism, Traditional
- Cross-Strait Relations
- Cultural Revolution
- Daoism
- Daoist Canon
- Deng Xiaoping
- Dialect Groups of the Chinese Language
- Disability Studies
- Drama (Xiqu 戏曲) Performance Arts, Traditional Chinese
- Dream of the Red Chamber
- Early Imperial China
- Economic Reforms, 1978-Present
- Economy, 1895-1949
- Emergence of Modern Banks
- Energy Economics and Climate Change
- Environmental Issues in Contemporary China
- Environmental Issues in Pre-Modern China
- Establishment Intellectuals
- Ethnicity and Minority Nationalities Since 1949
- Ethnicity and the Han
- Examination System, The
- Fall of the Qing, 1840-1912, The
- Falun Gong, The
- Family Relations in Contemporary China
- Fiction and Prose, Modern Chinese
- Film, Chinese Language
- Film in Taiwan
- Financial Sector, The
- Five Classics
- Folk Religion in Contemporary China
- Folklore and Popular Culture
- Foreign Direct Investment in China
- Gardens
- Gender and Work in Contemporary China
- Gender Issues in Traditional China
- Great Leap Forward and the Famine, The
- Guanxi
- Guomindang (1912–1949)
- Han Expansion to the South
- Health Care System, The
- Heritage Management
- Heterodox Sects in Premodern China
- Historical Archaeology (Qin and Han)
- Hukou (Household Registration) System, The
- Human Origins in China
- Human Resource Management in China
- Human Rights in China
- Imperialism and China, c. 1800–1949
- Industrialism and Innovation in Republican China
- Innovation Policy in China
- Intellectual Trends in Late Imperial China
- Islam in China
- Jesuit Missions in China, from Matteo Ricci to the Restora...
- Journalism and the Press
- Judaism in China
- Labor and Labor Relations
- Landscape Painting
- Language, The Ancient Chinese
- Language Variation in China
- Late Imperial Economy, 960–1895
- Late Maoist Economic Policies
- Law in Late Imperial China
- Law, Traditional Chinese
- Legalism
- Li Bai and Du Fu
- Liang Qichao
- Literati Culture
- Literature Post-Mao, Chinese
- Literature, Pre-Ming Narrative
- Liu, Zongzhou
- Local Elites in Ming-Qing China
- Local Elites in Song-Yuan China
- Lu, Xun
- Macroregions
- Management Style in "Chinese Capitalism"
- Manchukuo
- Mao Zedong
- Marketing System in Pre-Modern China, The
- Marxist Thought in China
- Material Culture
- May Fourth Movement
- Media Representation of Contemporary China, International
- Medicine, Traditional Chinese
- Medieval Economic Revolution
- Mencius
- Middle-Period China
- Migration Under Economic Reform
- Ming and Qing Drama
- Ming Dynasty
- Ming Poetry 1368–1521: Era of Archaism
- Ming Poetry 1522–1644: New Literary Traditions
- Ming-Qing Fiction
- Modern Chinese Drama
- Modern Chinese Poetry
- Modernism and Postmodernism in Chinese Literature
- Mohism
- Museums
- Music in China
- Needham Question, The
- Neo-Confucianism
- Neolithic Cultures in China
- New Social Classes, 1895–1949
- One Country, Two Systems
- One-Child Policy, The
- Opium Trade
- Orientalism, China and
- Palace Architecture in Premodern China (Ming-Qing)
- Paleography
- People’s Liberation Army (PLA), The
- Philology and Science in Imperial China
- Poetics, Chinese-Western Comparative
- Poetry, Early Medieval
- Poetry, Traditional Chinese
- Political Art and Posters
- Political Dissent
- Political Thought, Modern Chinese
- Polo, Marco
- Popular Music in the Sinophone World
- Population Dynamics in Pre-Modern China
- Population Structure and Dynamics since 1949
- Porcelain Production
- Post-Collective Agriculture
- Poverty and Living Standards since 1949
- Printing and Book Culture
- Prose, Traditional
- Qi Baishi
- Qing Dynasty up to 1840
- Regional and Global Security, China and
- Religion, Ancient Chinese
- Renminbi, The
- Republican China, 1911-1949
- Revolutionary Literature under Mao
- Rural Society in Contemporary China
- School of Names
- Shanghai
- Silk Roads, The
- Sino-Hellenic Studies, Comparative Studies of Early China ...
- Sino-Japanese Relations Since 1945
- Sino-Soviet Relations, 1949–1991
- Social Welfare in China
- Sociolinguistic Aspects of the Chinese Language
- Su Shi (Su Dongpo)
- Sun Yat-sen and the 1911 Revolution
- Taiping Civil War
- Taiwanese Democracy
- Taiwan's Miracle Development: Its Economy over a Century
- Technology Transfer in China
- Television, Chinese
- Terracotta Warriors, The
- Tertiary Education in Contemporary China
- Texts in Pre-Modern East and South-East Asia, Chinese
- The Economy, 1949–1978
- The Shijing詩經 (Classic of Poetry; Book of Odes)
- Township and Village Enterprises
- Traditional Historiography
- Transnational Chinese Cinemas
- Tribute System, The
- Unequal Treaties and the Treaty Ports, The
- United States-China Relations, 1949-present
- Urban Change and Modernity
- Uyghurs
- Vernacular Language Movement
- Village Society in the Early Twentieth Century
- Warlords, The
- Water Management
- Women Poets and Authors in Late Imperial China
- Xi, Jinping
- Xunzi
- Yan'an and the Revolutionary Base Areas
- Yuan Dynasty
- Yuan Dynasty Poetry
- Zhu Xi