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This editorial introduces a themed section that focuses on the production of gender discourse and representations in the midst of tightening social and cultural control in China's entertainment industry and digital media landscape. In various ways, the two articles featured case studies that exemplify how the production of gender discourses and representations in this context emerges from the interplay of state control, the market, and the digital realm and unfolds against the rise of platform capitalism and techno-nationalism. Both articles center on the intricate and sometimes contradictory configurations of gender within China's state-market nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sheds light on the intricate relationship between the revival of Hanfu, traditional couture from the Han Dynasty, and rising Chinese nationalism among Chinese youth living in the United Kingdom. Mobilizing the theoretical tool 'affective economies', we explore how particular feelings and values are assigned and attached to Hanfu, and thereby circulate among young Chinese migrants. We begin by examining the Hanfu movement to interrogate how Hanfu is reinvented based on a selective historicity of the past, serving as a specific cultural product for China's rejuvenation. We then move on to analyze a series of in-depth interviews conducted between December 2019 and July 2020. We probe the lived experiences of young Hanfu supporters, who are members of the UK Han Culture Association, and the cultural events organized by the Association, in order to scrutinize the ways Hanfu conjures up an imagined community suffused with nationalism. Drawing upon on the affective economies of Hanfu, we discern the following three key findings: First, we argue that there are both positive and negative affective attachments to Hanfu, such as homesickness, loneliness, alienation, happiness, pride and beauty, which impinge on migrant bodies, assigning values to Hanfu and the Hanfu-related cultural events. Second, we show through the analysis of the fieldwork materials the paradoxical desire for chuguo (going abroad) and huiguo (returning to the nation) in the hearts of the young migrants. Finally, we argue that Hanfu circulates as a 'mnemonic thing' that signifies a specific imaginary of Ancient China, where young migrant's aiguo (love of the nation) sentiments are then 'stuck' to this reinvented fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bagamoyo Port Project (BPP) was meant to have set in motion the development of East Africa's largest port. Yet, with the advent of former President John P. Magufuli to power in October 2015, the BPP has led a chequered existence. This article explores the dynamics behind the stalled talks over the BPP by emphasising Magufuli's penchant for developmentalism, nationalism and authoritarianism ultimately as a political strategy designed to mask his vulnerable electoral standing within the party and with the electorate. The renegotiations over the BPP served as an ideal opportunity in this regard to shore up his base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In I China's Good War i , Mitter explores how the Chinese government and ordinary people memorized, demonstrated, and narrated World War II in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Mitter, Rana (2020) China's Good War: How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism. [Extracted from the article]

In 2016, Little Pink has emerged as the label for a new wave of female-led cyber-nationalism in China. While increasingly popularized in media and online discourses, little is known about the evolution of this label and its significance for our understanding of China’s digital activism. This article takes the first step at unraveling the Little Pink mystery by examining its origins and contestation in China’s online community during the cross-strait memes war of 2016 when mainland nationalists mobilized to challenge Taiwan’s election results. Drawing on multifaceted digital data, this study shows that Little Pink was an invented label and that gender was used by conflicting cyber groups in their attempts at reframing the imagery of nationalism. More broadly, this article demonstrates that cyber-nationalism is a phenomenon contested across different digital groups in China, and it should be analyzed more as a case of ambivalence in digital activism than as a manifestation of state propaganda or growing radical nationalism in contemporary China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the ways educated urban Chinese youths engage American television fiction as part of their identity work. Drawing on theories of modern reflexive identity and based on 29 interviews with US TV fans among university students in Beijing, I found these youths are drawn to this television primarily because they perceive the American way of life portrayed on it as more ‘authentic’. This perception of authenticity must be examined within the sociocultural milieu these students inhabit. Specifically, torn between China’s ingrained collectivist culture and its recent neoliberal emphasis on the individual self, my respondents glean from US TV messages about how to live a spontaneous, nonconforming, and fulfilled life while remaining properly Chinese. By inspecting the ways these youths employ foreign symbolic materials to interrogate their own identity and life, this article demonstrates how transnational media consumption informs lived experiences for a historically unique and important Chinese demographic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores two different articulations of the attitudes of young Chinese netizens towards the state: the neo-nationalist web community, ‘Anti-CNN.com’/‘April Youth’, and the online ‘machinema’ film, ‘Online Gaming Addicts’ War’. Both of these online practices are associated with the post-’80 s generation, which I argue is a key constituency in contemporary Chinese internet discourse. Through these case studies, the article explores the viability of recent attempts to apply Foucauldian theories of governmentality to the case of China. It identifies a determining factor here in the recurring tendency of the Party-state, whilst generally attempting to embrace more sophisticated forms of governance, to default towards crude techniques and technologies of prohibition in its regulatory stance towards the internet. Whilst this stance is likely to be unsustainable in view of the dynamics of global media culture, the article argues that this does not undermine claims over the existence of a distinctive Chinese form of governmentality. Rather, the Chinese case should strengthen doubts over the view of some that governmentality is incompatible with the state’s deployment of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a critical analysis of media discourses in which a dissident social actor is represented in China’s state-run English-language press. Specifically, it looks at media coverage of Liu Xiaobo, author of Charter 2008, a document calling for democracy and human rights in China. He was imprisoned for 11 years by the Chinese government for disseminating Charter 2008, but subsequently (to the government’s chagrin) was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in advocating human rights. This investigation examines articles from China’s English press on Liu Xiaobo. A transitivity analysis is conducted followed by an investigation of identifying and attributive relational processes in the texts. The findings show the use of passive agent deletion, definition/re-definition, and the attribution of derogating qualities to dissidents with the purpose of introducing biased ideological representations (positive-Self/negative-Other) into the discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cultural Palace of Nationalities, one of the Ten Monumental Buildings built in 1959 in Beijing to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), is considered a ‘political building’ in that it brings together ethnicity, architecture, art, technology and, most importantly, representations of the Party-state’s policy on the unity of the many different nationalities in China. A careful examination of the history of the Palace’s construction and its exhibits reveals two unsettling problems: the Chinese Communist Party’s manipulation of official images of national minorities, along with the Party’s difficulties in dealing with ethnic nationalism, regional separatism and local identity in the first decade of the PRC. These same thorny issues continue to cause the current government a major headache. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores why apparent political indifference coincides with nationalist passion in Chinese cyberspace. Drawing on interviews with university students and the notion of ‘new politics’, this article argues that online nationalism constitutes an important extension of the political being in the Chinese context, or a form of ‘new politics’ among contemporary youth in certain societies. The ‘dual’ political identity emerging from Chinese youth’s uses of the internet is reflective of, and reinforces, their offline self. Both their apparent lack of interest in engaging with the government and their strong nationalism are products of the same changing subjectivities in post-Mao China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

National image is not only a channel to wield a state’s national power, but also an important national power resource. It has become critically important for China as it tries to rise in a relatively favorable international environment. Following a theoretical discussion on national image management in international relations and a historical review of China’s national image management, this article examines China’s strengths and weaknesses in its national image management. On the one hand, China’s national image benefits from its strong commitment to cultural diplomacy, effective employment of information and communication technologies in international broadcasting, and close connections with the Chinese diaspora around the world. On the other hand, China’s national image management is constrained by such hurdles as weak political credibility, reviving popular nationalism, and various missteps in its foreign policies. This study concludes that China’s national image management will remain an uphill battle in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Interpretations of history have been a source of tension in East Asia but usually involve Japan and the Second World War. Yet, in the past ten years, another controversy has been brewing over history, this time between South Korea and China over claims to 'ownership' of an ancient kingdom. This article is a case study that examines how states utilize reinterpretations of history for current and future strategic goals. The result has been a dispute that has resembled a security dilemma where China's initial actions, deemed to be largely defensive by Beijing, were perceived in Seoul as offensive, provoking a counter-response that has in turn, alarmed China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the development of internet forums in the social and historical context in China with regard to its political impact. Online forums emerged in the mid 1990s in China as a promising social space for liberal-minded discussion led to a transformation in the popular ethos of people going online. However, in contrast to the prevailing optimistic estimation that the internet has brought the hope of democracy into China, the research shows that the power of state remains the strongest force in shaping the public ethos. Since online public discussion space is intersubjective and based upon online connectivity, changes in individuals' minds can affect the public ethos to such an extent that a pattern of development can be identified. Private citizens showed the capacity to form, with resilience, democratic practices and discourses alongside content that is trivial and in a less critical spirit. However, the web has now degenerated into a venue of mass entertainment since the year 2003, as the state successfully sabotaged the development of the electronic public sphere, by repeatedly suspending, dividing and harassing online public venues, so that the folk discourse can no longer sustain deliberative discussions on public matters, instead focusing on unreflective nationalism and popular prejudices. The future for an open public speaking corner is still bleak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The populist-oriented Hollywood blockbuster movies that tend to target the lowest common denominator are often accused by Chinese intellectuals of being culturally debilitating. Yet China's nationwide debate revolving around two recent technocratic, spectacle-driven domestic blockbusters by its renowned film director Zhang Yimou, Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004), and their flamboyant marketing have demonstrated Hollywood's broader and more systemic impact on China's film style, marketing practice and media culture, which are increasingly in line with the unified global standard set by Hollywood and marked by relentless commercialism. By studying the two movies' reception in China, this article discusses how a national culture receives globalized versions of its own traditions, the role of Hollywood, and the implications for international cultural exchange and national identity in the context of the international cultural economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the political history of 20th-century China. Details on the vision of the future of China; Effects of the Cultural Revolution; Concern for national dignity.

Can China modernise by learning from the outside world without compromising its independence in an age of globalisation? This special review article analyses three recently published Chinese books which reflect the discourse on nationalism and globalisation from official, academic, and populist perspectives, providing important insights into the rise of Chinese nationalism and how the Chinese see the post-Cold War order. Important issues for the definitions of security after the Cold War are raised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]