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When the World Shrinks: Chinese Concepts of Culture, Identity and History in the Early Twentieth Century.
- Source :
- Global Intellectual History; Apr2022, Vol. 7 Issue 2, p242-264, 23p
- Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- Chinese pre-nationalist, culturalist concepts of world order and of self and other have remained a powerful part of Chinese nationalist conceptualisations of the world, self and other. Here, I analyse Chinese concepts regarding the challenge of including non-Chinese peoples into the Chinese nation-state. Carrying critiques of Levenson's 'culturalism-to-nationalism thesis' forward, I demonstrate how culturalist concepts of the world became merged with nationalist concepts. Nationalist objectives made it necessary to adjust culturalism to new functions. I analyse how culturalism became a handy tool used by nationalist thinkers Liang Qichao, Zhang Taiyan and Sun Yat-sen to match the general nationalist ideal of a nation's homogeneity with the Chinese nationalist ideal of the Chinese nation-state's multi-ethnic territory. Culturalist arguments helped to undermine the right to build own nation-states for non-Chinese peoples, by putting this right into relation with certain qualities of peoples – culture, history, and population size. The Chinese inner-state 'other', the non-Chinese peoples, have been conceptualised as inferior in every of these qualities to deny them the right to build nation-states and instead legitimate their inclusion into the Chinese nation-state. Nevertheless, non-Chinese peoples will never be full members of the nation-state, but remain in 'exclusive inclusion' like Agamben's homo sacer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- CHINESE people
TWENTIETH century
INTERNATIONAL organization
CULTURE
NATION-state
SELF
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 23801883
- Volume :
- 7
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Global Intellectual History
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 156936759
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/23801883.2020.1738655