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The COVID-19 pandemic unleashed a torrent of conspiracy theories across different social media platforms. Parallel to this conspiracy wave was a heightened sense of nationalism, which manifested through both in-group solidarity and perceived out-group threats. In this study, we examine how individuals' use of government social media to gather political information correlated with nation-related conspiracy beliefs during the pandemic. Data were collected from 745 subjects in China and analyzed through path analyses, which allowed us to examine the direct association with political information consumption from government social media and the indirect association with nationalism on conspiracy beliefs. The results indicated that the use of government social media to gather political information was associated with greater beliefs in nation-variant COVID-19 conspiracies, both directly and through different mediations of nationalism. Our findings highlight the importance of examining government social media use and how nationalism can have differentiated mediation effects on beliefs in conspiracy theories. [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]

This study advances the understanding of consumer nationalism through an analysis of a Chinese boycott of South Korean goods. In early 2017, Chinese internet users expressed their strong aversion to the South Korean conglomerate Lotte and coordinated a folk boycott against it on the grounds that Lotte supported South Korea's deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile system, which China considered a threat. We explored the increasing convergence of consumer activities in the form of consumer nationalism with commercial entities' marketing strategies and also with the state's interests with respect to security and promoting national pride. The internet and new technologies have facilitated grassroots nationalist activities in terms of the ready circulation of information and mobilization of collective actions. We investigated a digital discursive space in the communicative interactions among stakeholders through which digital media not only amplify the scale and intensity of the mundane and everyday practice of nationalism but also blur the boundaries among the participating actors. Our research documented the multilateral relationships among stakeholders – individual consumers/media users, commercial entities, and the state – in practicing nationalism and reproducing the nation through (non)consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on public opinion and foreign policy in China has focused on nationalism as the driver behind public support for the use of force. However, nationalism is just one of many potentially significant factors that can increase support for military deployments. In this article we build a mediation model to test the relative effects of psychological predispositions, foreign policy attitudes, perceptions of the opposing state and calculations about the likely outcome of the conflict on support for China sending naval forces to the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. We find that dislike of the Japanese government and a belief that China would be victorious in a conflict with Japan are both powerful predictors of support for the use of force. Nationalism and militarism directly increase support but also indirectly increase it via different pathways. Nationalists are more confident in a Chinese victory while militarists have a stronger dislike of the Japanese government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examined the relationship between ideology and conspiratorial thinking and the related mediating effect of ingroup favoritism in a non-Western society. We investigated patriotism and nationalism as two favorable orientations toward national ingroups. We also examined their relationship with the general conspiracy mentality and the specific conspiracy beliefs that have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results revealed that conservative ideology was associated with conspiratorial beliefs in China regardless of the specific conspiracy theories related to ingroups or outgroups, which indicates such tendencies may exist universally across cultures. Patriotism was not associated with conspiracy theories about the origin of COVID-19, whereas nationalism was negatively associated with the conspiracy theories about China (an ingroup) and positively associated with conspiracy theories about the US (an outgroup). Moreover, nationalism mediated the relationship between ideology and specific conspiracy beliefs during the pandemic. The general conspiracy mentality did not predict conspiracy theories about the origin of COVID-19. The results indicate that believing conspiracy theories is not only the result of a stable conspiracy mentality but is also influenced by ideology and intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An iconic characteristic of Hong Kong's social unrest in 2019 was the establishment of the so-called "yellow economic circle"—a networked system of retailers and consumers linked by shared political values. Movement sympathizers chose to consume products from retailers perceived as supporting movement aims and boycotted retailers thought to be in favor of closer ties with China. This research focuses on the challenges of the yellow economic circle through the lenses of class and consumer nationalism. Drawing on social media posts and interviews with pro-democracy individuals from different socio-economic backgrounds, we highlight challenges to the sustainability of the "yellow economic circle." Class-based purchasing power represented an obstacle to the success of the yellow economic circle; however, it was not the biggest challenge. Instead, an inherent incompatibility between the movement's aims and the means for achieving these aims posed the biggest hurdle. Navigating this incompatibility represented an opportunity for movement participants to develop innovations in thinking about consumer nationalism and the role purchasing power may play in participation. We conclude that the way participants defined consumer nationalism determined whether the yellow economic circle could be understood to engender a shared "Hong Kong identity" and eliminate existing class differences. [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]

Traditionally perceived as a country of emigration, China has in recent years become an increasingly popular subject for immigration and diaspora studies, with an immigrant population that has been growing quietly and steadily since the 1990s. However, media representations of immigrants in China have not garnered much attention. This article provides a critical assessment of how immigrants and immigrant experience are portrayed on Chinese television, using the example of Foreigner in China (2013–19), the first-ever program on a national platform to tackle this topic. It argues that, while the program paints a rather insightful and entertaining picture of contemporary immigrant life in China, its representation of immigrants is restricted by not only the internal contradiction of the Xi administration's globalist discourse, but also the exclusive, ethnocentric conception of Chinese nationhood, which remains the norm in a more heterogenous and globally conscious Chinese society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to determine how digital nationalism influences gender politics in the context of gender-issue debates on Chinese social media platforms. To this end, I present an original case study, collecting empirical data from the most popular Chinese community question-answering (CQA) website, Zhihu. By using a mixed-method research design, consisting of content analysis (CA) and critical discourse analysis (CDA), I explored gender-issue debates between Chinese internet users. The analysis reveals how such debates inform divided opinions between women and men internet users, and how misogynistic men invoke a nationalist discourse to distort the debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An influential body of scholarship argues that authoritarian regimes design "hard" propaganda that is intentionally heavy-handed in order to signal regime power. In this study, by contrast, we link the power of propaganda to the emotional power of "soft" propaganda such as television dramas and viral social media content. We conduct a series of experiments in which we expose over 6800 respondents in China to real propaganda videos drawn from television dramas, state-backed social media accounts, and state-run newscasts, each containing nationalist messages favored by the Chinese Communist Party. In contrast to theories that propaganda is unpersuasive, we show that propaganda effectively manipulates anger as well as anti-foreign sentiment and behavior, with heightened anti-foreign attitudes persisting up to a week. However, we also find that nationalist propaganda has no effect on perceptions of Chinese government performance or on self-reported willingness to protest against the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of effeminate male images known as "little fresh meat" (xiao xian rou), or, more insultingly, "sissy pants" (niangpao) in film, TV, and advertisement has come in for heavy criticism in China. A number of "sissy" actors have even been blacklisted by the state media. Yet, despite this masculinist backlash, effeminate-looking stars and the aesthetic they embody are enjoying increasing popularity among high school students and other young people in urban China. The article situates the prevalence of male effeminacy and "sissyphobia"—the fear or hatred of effeminate men—in a wider social, cultural, and political background and adopts a culturally saturated and historically specific approach to queer masculinities in the Chinese context. By critical readings of recent TV/Web dramas featuring this type of male images, the article explores the disjuncture between urban youth culture and official attitudes and what the tension between them tells us about gender roles and subjectivity in contemporary China. And by discourse analysis of the debates in the media triggered by the images, the study examines how the effeminate male body is given affective interpretations and significances that are different from those in a Western context, and how the nation is imagined and articulated through embodied masculinity. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the article argues that the "little fresh meat" is part of a larger story of increasing diversity of gender presentations in postsocialist China and embodies shifting masculinity in a consumer society. The rise and popularity of such "sissy" actors need to be understood in the mechanisms of star making and the entertainment industry. At the same time, the debates on the standard of masculinities sparked by these images demonstrate distinctive interplay between manhood and nationhood and deep-seated anxiety over what an effeminate younger generation will mean for China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ritualized wine and tea tasting events exemplify the intensifying consumerism in contemporary China, and provide an opportunity for understanding the link between commercialized ceremonial practices and underlying individual aspirations and national ideologies. Based on an ethnographic investigation of recent formal wine and tea tasting events held in China's coastal eastern regions, this article explores how such events are embedded in discourses about both new individual lifestyle models and national cultural reconstruction. The author argues that, despite the fact that wine and tea drinking have very different cultural histories, ritualized tea and wine gatherings reflect many similar underlying social discourses. Furthermore, this article analyses some unsuccessful aspects of ritualized tastings to reveal the tension between social discourses and realities. Essentially, the article aims to show that Chinese consumption aspirations are caught in a paradox between ideals and practices, and performances and realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study critically examines two Chinese newspapers' representation of China as a "nation" and "culture." Prior studies have deeply and broadly explored various ways through which China, Chinese culture, and nationalism were constructed in popular media forums. What has been missing is a continued exploration of these constructions offered by the Chinese media sources that are published outside the dominant Chinese cultural, national, and political contexts. Using World Journal and Sing Tao Daily, two major Chinese immigrant newspapers, as the texts for analysis, this study produces important findings that demonstrate how China is constructed as a contested, multi-layered, powerful, and divided culture and nation. Based on the study's result, future inquiries can continue to analyze the representation of China across multiple media and linguistic platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the role and position of Chinese nationalism in the China–Taiwan relationship. Through discourse analysis, it aims to contend with the frequently presented picture in the literature on Chinese nationalism, that is, that nationalism in China is (almost) omnipresent and omnipotent. In the article, nationalism is presented as a broad but nuanced phenomenon. By its very nature, nationalism is a multi-edged sword whose ‘edges’ have the potential to be positive and constructive in certain situations, as shown in China’s approach to Taiwan in which nationalism plays an enabling role in a relatively important way. However, the article reveals a hierarchy in the concepts upon which China’s official discourse is based. In doing so, it disentangles and separates the role of two key concepts—nationalism and sovereignty—which are generally seen as almost interchangeable. Ethics, morality and kinship in Chinese nationalism - as presented by China’s official discourse in the relation to Taiwan - are subordinated to the politics of sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the Sino-British Joint Declaration and Basic Law, Hong Kong was to exercise a high degree of autonomy under the framework of “one country, two systems” after the British handover of its sovereignty to China in 1997. In the initial post-handover period, Beijing adopted a policy of nonintervention in Hong Kong, but the outbreak of the July 1, 2003 protest triggered a subsequent change of policy. Since then, Beijing has embarked on state-building nationalism, adopting incorporation strategies so as to subject Hong Kong to greater central control over the political, economic, and ideological arenas. Ironically, instead of successfully assimilating Hongkongese into one Chinese nation, Beijing’s incorporation strategies are leading to a rise of peripheral nationalism in the city-state and waves of counter-mobilization. This article analyzes mainland–Hong Kong relations on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the handover and offers insights from an emerging case study that builds upon the nationalism literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study looks at the sources of anti-Japanese sentiment in today's China. Using original survey data collected in June 2014 from 1,458 students at three elite universities in Beijing, we quantitatively investigate which factors are associated with stronger anti-Japanese sentiment among elite university students. In particular, we examine the link between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s nationalist propaganda (especially patriotic education) and university students' anti-Japanese sentiment. We find that nationalist propaganda does indeed have a significant effect on negative sentiment towards Japan. Reliance on state-sanctioned textbooks for information about Japan, visiting museums and memorials or watching television programmes and movies relating to the War of Resistance against Japan are all associated with higher levels of anti-Japanese sentiment. The findings suggest the effectiveness of nationalist propaganda in promoting anti-Japanese sentiment. We also find that alternative sources of information, especially personal contact with Japan, can mitigate anti-Japanese sentiment. Thus, visiting Japan and knowing Japanese people in person can potentially offset some of the influences of nationalist propaganda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the role of the market in the promotion of nationalism, this article focuses on Chinese popular music and examines how nationalism is promoted in China through patriotic songs. It applies Althusser's theory of “Ideological State Apparatus” and argues that China has a long history of nationalist mobilization through patriotic songs, which claims both Chinese artists and consumers as subjects of nationalism. As the Chinese popular music industry is now marketized, the market becomes the primary platform where the state, the artist, and the consumer interact, collaborate, and negotiate in the production and consumption of patriotic songs. In implementing their marketing strategies, artists help enhance the reach and effectiveness of Chinese patriotic education by tailoring their songs to well-defined, diverse market segments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the ideological meanings of select visual images in Hong Kong’s national anthem TV announcements in the public interest (API) series ‘One Home and One Country’, which aimed to promote patriotism and enhance nationalism among Hong Kong people after 1997. Using semiology, the author decodes all the visual content and technical aspects of the four series that were broadcast between 2004 and 2007. Through content analysis, he examines the embedded messages by counting and analysing the frequency of the signified meanings of the visual elements, which are highly selective and depoliticised to reinforce re-sinicisation. The series intentionally displayed the visual spectacles of a modernised China, traditional values and culture, and national achievement. By minimising the presence of political elements, the Hong Kong SAR government branded and built a positive image of the People’s Republic of China and encouraged Hong Kong people to unconsciously accept their national identity and pride. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst political tensions between China and Japan, and against the backdrop of the patriotic education campaign in China that promotes a negative image of Japan as the victimiser, Chinese students in Japanese educational institutions study and work in Japan in a highly politicised context. In general, how they chose to interpret their experiences in Japan, and their views on history and controversial political issues involving China and Japan, demonstrates two levels of cosmopolitanism - namely, the ability and the willingness to engage with Japanese people on such issues, and reflexivity towards their own national identities. Meanwhile, some informants would deliberately avoid talking about history and controversial political issues involving China and Japan. While they lacked the willingness to engage with Japanese people on controversial issues, their keenness to separate their daily lives in Japan from the political context means they were also engaged in a reflexive reconfiguration of their national identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the lens of positioning theory and a mixed methods strategy, we investigate domestic media's production of nationalism during an international conflict Philippine and Chinese news accounts of the Scarborough Shoal conflict are text mined by Rapid Miner software. With almost 100% accuracy, mathematical models successfully classify sets-of-words that belong to each domestic newspaper. Principal components analyses show that Philippine Daily Inquirer reports revolve around words related to local fishing and livelihoods. News accounts in China's People's Daily uphold national sovereignty. A complementary qualitative analysis of the news reports gives our mathematically derived themes more meaning. Philippine maritime claims cite recent Philippine history and international law. China's story references lost sovereignty and ancient rather than recent history. Positioning analysis demonstrates how each newspaper claims its own country owns Scarborough Shoal and is the victim of the other country. Our findings show how two contradictory and nationalistic versions of an international conflict may be linguistically constructed by domestic media. Our research also highlights the illuminative power of positioning theory in the field of international relations and media analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of a Chinese popularity function may seem surprising, given its authoritarian nature. However, exploring the possibility of indirect popularity functions in nondemocratic systems, we articulate a model of national government support in China. The model argues that sociodemographics, political attitudes, and performance issues mold central government satisfaction. Drawing on a countrywide 2008 public opinion survey, we conclude that regional differences, national trust, and local policy success are of special importance in shaping national government support. The findings, which exhibit theoretical and statistical appeal, lay the groundwork for further investigation of popularity functions in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the Olympic narratives of young, educated urbanites in China to consider the 2008 Beijing Olympics’ role as a “diagnostic event” through which global conflicts and controversies coalesce and national identities are constructed. It illustrates how students and young professionals analyzed the Beijing Olympics to invoke discourses of similarity in the form of Western economic development models and difference in the form of essentialized tropes of Chinese culture to counter global images of China as a threat to international well-being. Exploring theories of mimicry to understand these appeals to similarity as a form of national value, this article also reveals how students and young professionals in China recommended the forms of culture manifest in the Olympics as an expression of difference to question and reformulate hierarchies of global power. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rise of stability preservation to dominance in the political order coincided with a highly charged debate over "universal values" and a closely related discussion of a "China Model". This paper analyses the critique of universal values as a "wedge issue" that is used to pre-empt criticism of the party-state by appealing to nationalism and cultural essentialism. Taking freedom as a case. in point of a universal value, it shows that, while, more developed in the West, freedom has an authentic Chinese history with key watersheds in the late Qing reception of popular sovereignty and the ending of the Maoist era. The work of Wang Ruoshui, Qin Hui and Xu Jim display some of the resources liberals now bring to "de-wedging" universal values, not' least freedom. They share a refusal to regard `Western" values as essentially hostile to Chinese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since China implemented animation control policies in 2004, foreign animation programmes have almost disappeared from Chinese television. At the same time, the Chinese government has invested enormous amounts of money in developing the animation industry as a creative industry. A questionnaire survey was conducted to explore how the Chinese audience views domestic and foreign animation programmes. The results indicate that pirated Japanese animation is widely viewed via the Internet by adolescents; on the other hand, domestic animation is popular only among children. Preferences for domestic animation correlate positively with age and patriotism but negatively with Internet use, while preferences for Japanese animation correlate negatively with age and patriotism but positively with Internet use. These results show that nationalistic sentiments are associated with preferences for either domestic or foreign animation programmes. However, preferences for Japanese animation are not significantly associated with anti-government attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Typologies are widely used in the field of intercultural communication to explain cultural differences. Especially the typology ‘individualism versus collectivism’ (I/C) is a central theoretical construct in cross-cultural comparison. But are such typologies really suited for explaining cultural phenomena? Is their explanatory power limited because the theoretical underpinnings are based on a Western mindset? And is using typologies as scientific models appropriate to explain intercultural incidents and uncover cultural patterns from a non-Western view as well? Do such typologies meet the demands of a modern view on the field of intercultural communication? This article casts a critical light on the appropriateness and applicability of typologies. The aim is twofold. The first part examines the limitations of typologies from an East Asian standpoint, bringing out the hidden cultural mindset on which this bipolar construct is built. The second part presents a model meant to contribute to a more profound debate between East Asian and Western views on intercultural communication. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A complex phenomenon, nationalism has surged worldwide in recent years and presents a serious challenge to international marketers. This article examines the impact of Chinese grassroots nationalism on foreign brands on four fronts, that is, the political, cultural, economic, and consumer rights. It argues that the four fronts are interlinked and involve the participation of not only the consumer but also the government, the media, and local companies. Thus, the effects of nationalism on foreign brands are largely mediated by these agents and manifest the most in the arena of public policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Nationalism in the sense of symbols or actions glorifying the fatherland can be detected in many Chinese commercials today. In the form of a mythical narration, various aspects of an idealized China image are communicated, an image designed to bring about a sense of identity for all Chinese people. While first and foremost serving consumer preferences, these emotionally charged constructions of a "super nation" can also be interpreted in an ideological sense. Seen against the background of the public discourse on patriotism underway since 1989, this "Sinization" of advertising suggests the more or less subtle influence of party-state propaganda. In analysing TV commercials and interpreting their content, the ambivalent position and general background of advertisers must, however, be kept in mind. Even as they attempt to address and leverage popular trends, these advertisers are part of the community that has shaped the worldviews and values (some of them ideological) that are also reflected in the ads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on land use planning topics, including "Historical Amnesia: New Urbanism and the City of Tomorrow," "More Than Sector Theory: Homer Hoyt's Contributions to Planning Knowledge" and "Methodology for the Survival Analysis of Urban Building Stocks."

In the little research that has been done on Uyghurs living in Beijing, they have usually been identified as internal migrants and studied in a framework that focused on socioeconomic factors. This article, by contrast, argues that the experience of many of these Uyghurs actually more closely resembles that of exiles, being linked primarily, as I show, to ethnic politics and particularly to the ongoing political repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Because historically in China people were normally exiled from Beijing to Xinjiang, I refer to the Uyghur experience in Beijing as "inverted exile." The article explores the Uyghur exile through the life and creative work of two Uyghur individuals, one musician and one writer, and points out their expressions of alienation, nationalism, nostalgia, longing for return, and ethnic dissent. With emphasis on the last, the article suggests that the exile in Beijing has surprisingly provided Uyghurs with a rare freedom to voice dissent at a time when Uyghur oppositional voices have been almost totally silenced in Xinjiang. After analyzing several examples of dissent, the article examines why Uyghur dissent was possible in Beijing and considers the implications of this dissent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]