Lu Xun once criticized the Chinese people for having no sense of nationalism or duty for their country. He called his own people cowards who would stand with the enemy as long as it meant they could profit for themselves even amidst the suffering of their countrymen. The Chinese only talked about their own old history, he stated in one of his many critical essays, living in their past glories instead of focusing on the present humiliations and indignation. He wanted to save his people by using the force of nationalism even when it seemed hopeless. Waking up sleeping men stuck within an iron box, as he called it, letting them know that they will die instead of allowing them a painless end.
I guess it worked. The Chinese people, from babies waving Chinese flags to the elderly who still have Mao’s picture plastered on their walls are now instilled with an extreme sense of nationalism. So why does it exist now? Here are a few reasons:
1. China has now risen after three decades of rapid economic growth so the people are proud of their achievements. The Olympics in Beijing is proof that China has achieved greatness on the world stage.
2. China’s past humiliations have caused them to feel extremely protective of any foreign accusations and demands. The threat of Tibet breaking off and an independent Taiwan leads to fears that China will break apart and return to the dark days of warlordism. Weakness will lead to a repeat of foreign imperialism and discrimination against the Chinese people.
3. China has a long five thousand years of glorious history that originated along the Yellow River and has spread from the northeastern reaches of Manchuria to the beaches of Hainan, the deserts of Xinjiang, and the mountains of Tibet. The integrity of the Chinese nation is necessary for the integrity of the Chinese identity. Only as a whole country can the originator of Asian culture once again rise to the top.
4. The Chinese people is not one homogeneous people, but made up of not only different ethnicity, but also speak thousands of different dialects, have different customs and beliefs, and various religious affiliations. Without a strong sense of nationalism, the country would splinter into various factions. As a result, the government has taken up the role of using nationalism, which began with the Confucian Revival by the Nationalist Party and evolved into a Maoism as a religion that reached its peak during the Cultural Revolution. The government is now creating nationalism using all those reasons listed above to control the people.
5. Pandas.
Whatever the reasons for the rise of ultra nationalism in China, the important thing to know is that it currently exists. The Chinese people are fiercely nationalistic, especially those who are more inward looking while those on the fringes of Chinese society, such as ethnic minorities, left wing dissidents, and punk rockers, tend to have either their own local identities or have more cosmopolitan beliefs. So is it good to be nationalistic? Well…
Nationalism blinds people from acknowledgement of the humanity of those outside their nationality and because of this, it can be seen as a negative force. However, at the same time, it empowers a nation with by uniting its people towards a singular goal, preventing social conflicts, and encourages the people to do great and terrible things to further the glory of their country.
Now the term ‘brain washed’ comes up pretty often. I don’t like that term too much, though I must admit I used it fairly often when I first came to China. However, my ideas have changed a bit. Almost all forms of nationalism are at least in some way imposed from the top down. The state gives the people a part of their identity, which is why people call themselves German or French or Chinese, or Somalian. Actually, I don’t think most people in Somalia call themselves Somalian because of a lack of top down nationalism, which is mostly due to the fact that there is no effective government there these days. Anyways. Because identity is at least partially given by the state, all people who claim some kind of nationality are ‘brain washed’.
The distinction comes from what makes up the rest of ones identity. This can come from family, ethnicity, religion, or even such things as hobbies (I’m sure at least a few people have the majority of their identity shaped by their World of Warcraft character). The more interaction that exists with things not related to the state, the more diverse one’s identity becomes. For example, someone who is of Indian ethnicity but born in South Africa in a predominantly black community might have a fairly diverse mindset.
Now lets look at China. The government has their hands in almost everything. The media is state controlled, the internet is filtered, and cultural works require approval. Even the country’s language of ‘putonghua’ and simplified characters are state created or manipulated. Contact with the outside world was non-existent for thirty years and in many parts of the country, the people have not even left their village, let alone meet someone from another country.
It’s not whether or not the Chinese people are ‘brain washed’ into being nationalistic or not that matters. Nationalism is strongest when the people are isolated. What’s that cliche again… there is no fear greater than the fear of the unknown? The west fears China and the Chinese fear the west. If only there was some big international event that can bring the brainwashed people from all over the world to meet and enlighten each other on their own humanity… if only…
Hello,
I work for an Al Jazeera English television programme called “The Listening
Post”. In our show, we analyze the media and look at how the media worldwide
covers different news items.
For your interest, here is a link of our playlist
(http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=2852B12A0CDD3DE9)
— all the shows we have done on the Listening Post — so that you can get a
better idea of what we are all about.
For our upcoming show, we are looking at the media problems facing Tibet in
its current conflict with China — what kind of censorship exists in Tibet?
Who is censoring the media in Tibet? Is the worldwide media able to access
information on Tibet? What is the relationship between China and Tibet in
regards to media freedom in Tibet?
I’d very much like to include you in this program considering that you have
written several posts on the subject of Tibet and the media. To include your
opinion on the above questions, I’ll need you to record yourself on a webcam
or videorecording device and email the file to us (the instructions are below
for how to upload it to us).
I hope you get a chance to record this and email it to us (all the
instructions are below). I’ll need the file in our inbox (the instructions
for how to upload it to http://www.yousendit.com are below) by Tuesday 1 April
morning time GMT (London time) at the latest, otherwise we won’t be able to
use it as that is our edit deadline. Please note that your submission must be
in English.
Best regards,
Shirin Sadeghi
Producer
Al Jazeera English’s “The Listening Post”
————————-
TIPS:
—BEFORE RECORDING—
1- Find a quiet place to record your comment, so that background noise
doesn’t cause a problem. Overhead fans, open windows, air conditioning – all
of these can create a hum in the background. Try to switch them off before
you make your final recording.
2- Be aware of what is in the background as you film — make sure it’s
nothing you don’t want us to see, and try to keep it plain.
3- Secure the camera on an even surface so that it doesn’t wobble or shake.
4- Frame the picture so that you have your head and shoulders in frame with
about a quarter of the frame left empty at the top, for head space.
5- Make sure there is light on your face – a lamp facing you is a good option
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7- Record on your webcam software OR quicktime (.mov)
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china is a very omcplex beast …. more so even than india … they want to strive for unity, but we are still talking about over a billion individuals … like a giant slow moving blog that shakes the world …. that is the Chinese Entity
From Las Vegas: The Masked Millionaire Speaks
You can dress a pig up in a beautiful gown..but you know what? IT IS STILL A PIG!! And China is still a country run by a bunch of thugs.
The Masked Millionaire
http://www.TheMaskedMillionaire.com
@Shirin – I would love to, but there are two problems: I don’t have a webcam at work and I don’t have internet at home. So sadly, I can’t send you anything… sigh… pity that.
@wanderer7 – more so than India? I always thought India to be very complex with its long colonial history, millions of different ethnicities, staggering inequality between the countryside and the urban dwellers… at the very least, I would think it is just as complex as China, if not more so.
It’s pretty interesting to read about your thoughts.
Would like to hear your ideas on overseas Chinese people’s nationalism. As you might (or might not) have noticed, a lot of Chinese people showed up to support SF Torch Relay. Why do you think after being abroad for a long time, after being exposed to western democracy and socialization, many of them are still very nationalistic?
I think that nationalism is also partially created or increased when Chinese people feel misunderstood or disappointed by westerners. It’s like the westernes are helping to push Chinese together. I feel that the recently hyper-nationalism is largely caused by the biased western media’s cover of what happened in Lhasa on March 14. I am not trying to say that the goverment did nothing wrong at all(I don’t know about this) or the Chinese media is neutral, but that Chinese people did find evidence proving that much of the report in the west was not acurate. Chinese students protested against biased media (in Germany, France, Canada…)but the messages were not as much spreaded to westerners as messages accusing Chinese government of being violent and oppressive. I think it’s not that the pro-Tibet protesters made Chinese students who study abroad particularly angry this time(there have been many protesters for a long time anyways, well, not as salient as this time, but still…they already know about this…) It’s the fact that while the west advocates the freedom of speech and ethical /neutral news report, there’s still lots of stereotypes and misconduct by western media.
These are some of my thoughts. I enjoy your blog a lot.
And, I like cheese. :p
@jh – First, thanks for commenting. My opinion of the nationalism of Chinese-Americans is the same as that of all other types of nationalism. I see nationalism as a force that unites people, which is good, but at the same time alienates those who are outside their nationality, which is bad. For nationalism to exist, there is usually some kind of ‘outsider’ or ‘enemy’ to the nation which makes such nationalistic feelings particularly strong.
I’m not particularly in touch with the Chinese-American community since I grew up in a Latino neighborhood, so I don’t really have an inside look at what it’s all about. However, I remember there were all these Mexican or Puerto Rican flags in my neighborhood instead of American flags. When I asked them about it, they said that they were showing their pride of where they come from. It’s something that makes them different from all the white folks who live up in the hill, something that binds them together as a minority community. What do they have to be proud of? Well they started saying stuff about their culture and their history, but I really got the sense that they had no idea.
I would think the same would apply to the Chinese-American community. Nationalism is a powerful force, but the reasons why nationalistic feelings exist are usually not grand or noble. It’s practical. It makes someone who is different from the majority feel special instead of an outcast. It gives them this invisible support group. Like a safety blanket or a teddy bear.
So why did the Chinese-American community turn out in force? Well, it’s like someone is trying to tell them that their teddy bear is commiting genocide and all these other terrible things that they consider lies. Even though they might have forgotten about their teddy bear for the past 15 years or have stated that they are too old for their teddy bear and that it’s something only for babies, the fact that an *outsider* comes in and hates on it is unacceptable. As a result, they rally together with all the other people who also felt insulted to protest and show support for their teddy bear.
And yes, cheese is awesome.
As for the “five thousand years” of Chinese history, that concept did not exist until a beautiful Chinese girl visited Joseph Needham and took him to China for his ” history of research on Science and Technology”. Needham ended up marrying that girl.
The 5000 years were mostly spent guarding what scholars call “China proper”, not the China which exists to day but the Communist party would like you believe otherwise.
And, as for the “glory”, well, a reinterpretation/re writing, of history, with selective editing, which includes elimination of foreign influences from India (acc. to the Chinese: “Dhamo” was ‘legendary but ‘Laozi’ was real), Persia (acc. to the Chinese:the travelers of the ‘Silk Road’ only took technology from China but never bought it to them even though they had it), Greece (Foreign coins don’t mean a thing, right?).
Chinese are good at rewriting history but they’re not the originators of anything in Asia. They were beneficiaries of achievements from Sumer, Babylon etc.
@Coleman – Truth doesn’t matter when it comes to Nationalism and that’s what the point of this post was. I mean let’s think about the Greeks, since that was one of the influences on China that you talked about.
A lot of current day Greeks, according to a historian on a certain forum that I frequent, is constantly arguing with modern day Greek nationalists about how ancient Greek is actually very different than modern day Greek. There’s also arguments as to whether Alexander the Great was a Greek or was he some northern Balkan barbarian.
I mean it really doesn’t matter. Nationalism and identity are both created from bits of truth and lots of myth. I mean there’s the Chinese with their ‘5000 years of history’, the Americans with their pretty little story about the Pilgrims, and the Africans about how they “started the first civilization on the planet while all those white mother fuckers are hiding in caves all afraid of the sun and shit”.
Finally, that last bit you wrote makes you seem like the western version of the Chinese you described. The Chinese are not originators of anything? That really takes a lot of legitimacy from your comment when you make outlandish and biased statements like that.
Might as well start talking about how the Roman’s didn’t invent anything but the genocide…
blind fools thier governments evil