Chinese Students' Constructive Nationalism

Last June the author, a teacher of political theory at Tsinghua University, was asked by a Canadian television crew to get hold of some students for a special on modern China. During the discussion, the author observed that his Chinese students express a thoughtful and informed nationalism, and a distrust of Western-style democracy. Some of the students become "nationalistic" in the sense of being committed to learning more about Chinese culture and philosophy: They really confront the need to think about their roots only when they clash with another culture. That is not to say that students entirely reject Western influence; many still hope to go abroad and learn about the West. Today Chinese students commonly believe that any stable and legitimate political arrangement needs to be founded, at least partly, on political ideals from their own tradition.