From my observations in China over the last nearly four years there (and I'll head back in a couple of weeks after a two week holiday) are that:
1. It is quite widespread, at least among the Han ethnic group in the larger cities.
2. For most, it also comprises the following:
a. A pride in the history (I won't get into a debate about the accuracy of the beliefs here, sinse in the case of nationalism, belief holds more sway than fact anyway) that China had never declared war against another nation throughout its history, anless attacked first, and can therefore be viewed as a peaceful nation with no reason for the outside world to fear it.
b. As for Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, etc, (again, we can debate facts all day here, but in the context of Chinese nationalism, I'm dealing with common beliefs which define Chinese nationalism), they have historically been a part of China, and so any conflict between them must be viewed in light of a civil war and not a war between nations. That being the case, just as China has never initiated wars against other nations, and has a proud history of keeping to itself, it expects the same from the rest of the world (i.e., any internal conflict is a chinese issue, and the rest of the world ought to keep its nose out of China's internal affairs.
3. Chinese nationalism, while very welcoming of foreigners, still views us as suspect, in reference to the Opium Wars and, needless to say, the Japanese are the most mistrusted due to Japan's invasion of China during WWII.
4. Due to certain historical factors, modern China has become very suspicious of organized religion, especially if it is of foreign origin. I'm not just talking about the government here; even ordinary citizens would oppose their government suddenly granting total religious freedom overnight.
5. It places a strong emphasis on national unity (and that includes Taiwan).
Now for the solution:
Needless to say, if some of the crucial component parts of Chinese nationalism involve a certain isolationism and keeping to oneself, foreign political (never mind military) interference would naturally cause the utmost offence to the average Chinese nationalist.
Thus it would seem to me that the best solution to fighting nationalism in China would be through education and not politics.
The following are examples:
Our institute is currently co-operating with the government of our province in developing a character education curriculum which takes on an inter-faith dimension, thus teaching students co-existence within a multi-faith community, with emphasis on the commonalities between the world religions and how they can also apply to secular society as well. This project has been ongoing for at least a few years now, and has achieved brilliant results in the classroom already in terms of attitudes children develop in the classroom.
And starting this September, we will create a parallel curriculum in Esperanto, with emphasis on establishing penfriend relationships between primary school students in China and abroad, thus allowing for efficient intercultural exchange. The reason for this decision was that Esperanto, being at least five times easier to learn than English, could allow students to exchange these ideas fluently and independently of any teacher, by the age of 10 (or 11 at the latest) while still at an impressionable age, thus allowing them to develop a more open view to the world. With English, they're usually only able to exchange ideas on such a level, by the age of fifteen at the earliest, (and even then, that would apply to the best students only), when their world view is generally already fixed and less open to change.
I'm looking forward to working on this new project in China of all places.
You should be able to get more information about this project independently of me over the next few months via:
http://www.espero.com.cn/
(unfortunately it is only available in Chinese and Esperanto, but I might keep you abreast of it as well, as it progresses over the next few years).
1. It is quite widespread, at least among the Han ethnic group in the larger cities.
2. For most, it also comprises the following:
a. A pride in the history (I won't get into a debate about the accuracy of the beliefs here, sinse in the case of nationalism, belief holds more sway than fact anyway) that China had never declared war against another nation throughout its history, anless attacked first, and can therefore be viewed as a peaceful nation with no reason for the outside world to fear it.
b. As for Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, etc, (again, we can debate facts all day here, but in the context of Chinese nationalism, I'm dealing with common beliefs which define Chinese nationalism), they have historically been a part of China, and so any conflict between them must be viewed in light of a civil war and not a war between nations. That being the case, just as China has never initiated wars against other nations, and has a proud history of keeping to itself, it expects the same from the rest of the world (i.e., any internal conflict is a chinese issue, and the rest of the world ought to keep its nose out of China's internal affairs.
3. Chinese nationalism, while very welcoming of foreigners, still views us as suspect, in reference to the Opium Wars and, needless to say, the Japanese are the most mistrusted due to Japan's invasion of China during WWII.
4. Due to certain historical factors, modern China has become very suspicious of organized religion, especially if it is of foreign origin. I'm not just talking about the government here; even ordinary citizens would oppose their government suddenly granting total religious freedom overnight.
5. It places a strong emphasis on national unity (and that includes Taiwan).
Now for the solution:
Needless to say, if some of the crucial component parts of Chinese nationalism involve a certain isolationism and keeping to oneself, foreign political (never mind military) interference would naturally cause the utmost offence to the average Chinese nationalist.
Thus it would seem to me that the best solution to fighting nationalism in China would be through education and not politics.
The following are examples:
Our institute is currently co-operating with the government of our province in developing a character education curriculum which takes on an inter-faith dimension, thus teaching students co-existence within a multi-faith community, with emphasis on the commonalities between the world religions and how they can also apply to secular society as well. This project has been ongoing for at least a few years now, and has achieved brilliant results in the classroom already in terms of attitudes children develop in the classroom.
And starting this September, we will create a parallel curriculum in Esperanto, with emphasis on establishing penfriend relationships between primary school students in China and abroad, thus allowing for efficient intercultural exchange. The reason for this decision was that Esperanto, being at least five times easier to learn than English, could allow students to exchange these ideas fluently and independently of any teacher, by the age of 10 (or 11 at the latest) while still at an impressionable age, thus allowing them to develop a more open view to the world. With English, they're usually only able to exchange ideas on such a level, by the age of fifteen at the earliest, (and even then, that would apply to the best students only), when their world view is generally already fixed and less open to change.
I'm looking forward to working on this new project in China of all places.
You should be able to get more information about this project independently of me over the next few months via:
http://www.espero.com.cn/
(unfortunately it is only available in Chinese and Esperanto, but I might keep you abreast of it as well, as it progresses over the next few years).