Abstract
This chapter sets out the key argument contained in this book, namely that the CCP has utilised Chinese historical memory to stimulate popular nationalism in an effort to bolster its waning legitimacy. However, this has backfired with an increasing number of people in China challenging the party’s claim to be the sole defender of Chinese national interests, the party that purports to have liberated China from imperialist subjugation in 1949 and has put China back on the international map. The chapter introduces the key historical events used by the party to whip up a nationalist support base and examines the methods employed to do so. We note some of the key criticisms levelled against the CCP (to be expanded upon in later chapters) and identify the social categories of people in China who are making these criticisms. We also examine the wider concept of nationalism, and within this, the concept of Chinese nationalism.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Baker, H. (1979). Chinese family and kinship. New York: Columbia University Press.
Breslin, S., & Shen, S. (Eds.). (2010). Online Chinese nationalism and Chinese bilateral relations. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Breuilly, J. (1985). Nationalism and the state. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Brubaker, R. (1996). Nationalism reframed: Nationhood and the national question in new Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cohen, P. (1984) . The problem with China’s response to the west. In P. Cohen (Ed.), Discovering history in China: American historical writing on the recent Chinese past. New York: Columbia University Press.
Dietrich, C. (1998). People’s China: A brief history. New York: Oxford University Press.
Feng, M., & Yuan, E. (2014). Public opinion on Weibo: The case of the Diaoyu islands dispute. In T. Hollihan (Ed.), The dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands: How media narratives shape public opinion and challenge the global order (pp. 119–140). New York: Palgrave.
Gillin, D. (1964). Peasant nationalism in the history of Chinese communism. Journal of Asian Studies, 23(2), 269–289.
Hall, J. (1993). Nationalisms: Classified and explained. Daedalus, 122(3), 1–28.
Handler, R. (1988). Nationalism and the politics of culture in Quebec. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Hastings, A. (1997). The construction of nationhood: Ethnicity, religion and nationalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hays Gries, P. (2004). China’s new nationalism: Pride, politics and diplomacy. California: University of California Press.
Hays Gries, P., Prewitt-Freilino, J., Cox-Fuenzalida, L.-E., & Qingmin, Z. (2009). Contentious histories and the perception of threat: China, the United States, and the Korean war—An experimental analysis. Journal of East Asian Studies, 9, 433–465.
Hays Gries, P., Steiger, D., & Wang, T. (2016). Popular nationalism and China’s Japan policy: The Diaoyu islands protests, 2012–2013. Journal of Contemporary China, 98(25), 264–276.
Hechter, M. (2000). Containing nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Huang, P. (2008). Zhongguo de Xiao Zichanjieji he Zhongjian Jieceng: Beilun de Shehui Xingtai [Petty-Bourgeoisie and middle social stratum in China: The paradox of social formation], Leaders, 22, Retrieved from http://www.21ccom.net/articles/rwcq/article_20100120381.html.
Johnson, C. (1962). Peasant nationalism and communist power: The emergence of revolutionary China, 1937–1945. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Kwong, S. K. (1988). The Chinese communists’ road to power: The anti-Japanese national united front. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Leonard, M. (2008). What does China think? London: Fourth Estate.
Lovell, J. (2011). The opium war: Drugs, dreams and the making of China. London: Picador.
Mao, Z. (1949). The Chinese people have stood up! Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-5/mswv5_01.htm.
Miller, D. (1995). On nationality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mitter, R. (2000). Behind the scenes at the museum: Nationalism, history and memory in the Beijing war of resistance museum, 1987–1997. China Quarterly, 161, 279–293.
Nyiri, P., Zhang, J., & Varrall, M. (2010). China’s cosmopolitan nationalists: Heroes and traitors of the 2008 olympics. China Journal, 63, 25–55.
Schwartz, B. (1964). In search of wealth and power: Yen Fu and the West. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Shapiro, J. R. (2001). Mao’s war against nature: Politics and the environment in revolutionary China. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Shen, S. (2007). Redefining nationalism in modern China: Sino-American relations and the emergence of public opinion in the 21st century. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Sheridan, J. (1975). China in disintegration: The republican era in Chinese history, 1912–1949. New York: Free Press.
Smith, A. (2001). Nationalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Szonyi, M. (2010). Ming fever: The present’s past as the people’s republic turns sixty. China Heritage Quarterly, 21, Retrieved from http://www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/articles.php?searchterm=021_mingfever.inc&issue=021.
Tilly, C. (1975). The formation of national states in Western Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Wang, Z. (2008). National humiliation history education, and the politics of historical memory: Patriotic education campaign in China. International Studies Quarterly, 52(4), 783–806.
Wang, Z. (2012). Never forget national humiliation: Historical memory in Chinese politics and foreign relations. New York: Columbia University Press.
Weiss, J. (2014). Powerful patriots: Nationalist protest in China’s foreign relations. New York: Oxford University Press.
Whiting, A. (1983). Assertive nationalism in Chinese foreign policy. Asian Survey, 23, 913–933.
Wu‚ Z. (2012). The effects of patriotic education on Chinese youths’ perceptions of Japan. Mphil Thesis, Lingnan University.
Xu, G. (2001). Anti-western nationalism: 1989–1999. World Affairs, 163(4), 151–162.
Xu‚ W. (2007). Chinese cyber nationalism: Evolution, characteristics, and implications. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Xu‚ G. (2012). Chinese anti-westernism, 2000–2010. Asian and African Studies, XVI, 2, 109–134.
Yat-sen, S. (1972). San Min Chu I: The three principles of the people. Taibei: China Publishing Company.
Zhao, S. (1998). A state-led nationalism: The patriotic education campaign in post-Tiananmen China. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 31(3), 287–302.
Zhao, S. (Ed.). (2014). Construction of Chinese nationalism in the early 21st century: Domestic sources and international implications. London: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Weatherley, R., Zhang, Q. (2017). Introduction. In: History and Nationalist Legitimacy in Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47947-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47947-1_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-47946-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-47947-1
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)