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There are growing concerns about the role of identity narratives in spreading misinformation on social media, which threatens informed citizenship. Drawing on the social identity model of deindividualization effects (SIDE) and social identity theory, we investigate how the use of national identity language is associated with the diffusion and discourse of COVID-19 conspiracy theories on Weibo, a popular social media platform in China. Our results reveal a pattern of identity communication contagion in public conversations about conspiracies: national identity language usage in original posts is associated with more frequent use of such language in all subsequent conversations. Users who engaged in discussions about COVID-19 conspiracies used more national identity expressions in everyday social media conversations. By extending the SIDE model and social identity theory to misinformation studies, our article offers theoretical and empirical insight into how identity–contagious communication might exacerbate public engagement with misinformation on social media in non-Western contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript explores the state’s political use of the past and the function of history education in political transition and foreign relations. Modern historical consciousness in China is largely characterized by the “one hundred years of humiliation” from mid-1800s to mid-1900s when China was attacked, bullied, and torn asunder by imperialists. This research focuses initially on how such historical memory has been reinforced by the current regime’s educational socialization through the national “Patriotic Education Campaign” after 1991. It then explores the impact of this institutionalized historical consciousness on the formation of national identity and foreign relations. This study suggests that, even though existing theories and literature illuminate certain aspects of China’s political transition and foreign affairs behavior, a full explanatory picture emerges only after these phenomena and actions are analyzed through the “lenses” of history and memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the role of newspapers in transmitting nationalism into rural China from 1820-1929. Culturalism during the Manchu Dynasty; Preservation of the 'Shanxi Daily News' in archives; Introduction of Western-style newspapers into Chinese news network; Circulation of modern-style newspapers; Role of news in the formation of rural nationalism.

An essay is presented exploring the intellectual movement of China in the early 20th-century which sought to challenge the existing geopolitical understandings of "Asia" as a regional entity. Details are given highlighting the Chinese conception of an alternative anti-imperialist and non state-centered political system for the region. Comments are also given discussing its impact on the contemporary politics and historiography of the time.

Long before the collapse of the Manchu Monarchy in 1911, the social organization in China was founded on a large family system. This system exercised such a powerful influence that it completely dominated the thoughts and actions of the Chinese people. It taught them the necessity of cooperation, courtesy, patience, and self-control in family relationship. It inculcated in their minds the supreme importance of working for the honor and glorification of the family name. No satisfactory understanding of China and her present titanic problems of adjustment can be attained without an analysis of the deep-rooted influence of this system of social organization from which the Chinese people are emerging to play their part in the post-war reconstruction of the world. In a country like China where "society" as an idea of human organization did not exist and where nationalism was never greatly developed because of her rarely challenged position, filial piety acquired a great variety of applications. Filial obedience has been recognized the world over as an important virtue of man.