Within and Without: Chinese Writers Overseas

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gungwu Wang
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
The Political ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
Self In Relation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Migrant Community ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Dynamic Phenomena

AbstractThousands of Chinese outside China have been writing in Chinese and other languages since the past century. Some wrote merely to record their personal experiences. Others wrote to express their thoughts and feelings. We are beginning to have some idea of the aspirations and limitations of these writers and their struggles to define their place in their respective communities and countries, and in the larger world of literature. Each writer is a Self with regard to his or her immediate migrant community. As a member of the community, the writer is likely to have a different Self in relation to other ethnic groups in the adopted country, especially toward the dominant majority that has the political power to define national identity for all minorities. An additional Other would be the images of China. Also, some submit themselves to the test of globalization. Their condition can be better understood through the old Chinese dichotomy of nei and wai, with many dimensions of what is within and what is without. This dichotomy of within-without allows us to recognize the dilemmas of overseas Chinese writers as subjective and dynamic phenomena.

Borders, Ideology, Geography and Maps – The Case of Israel

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Perlman
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Geographic Education ◽  
The Past ◽  
Israeli Government ◽  
Political Boundaries ◽  
Mental Mapping ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Education Support

Although there are dozens of countries with present day border disputes, few have received such unrelenting international focus as Israel. Maps, cartography and geographic education support the developing doctrine of national boundaries that form collective national identity and ideology. Geographically, throughout the past century, the borders of Israel have become a melding of the phenomena of national identity with physical territory – also referred to as territorial socialization. My paper argues that Israel’s use of geographic description of borders specifically through cartography over time is an example of how boundaries are a powerful tool in the naturalization of ideology of Jewish Israelis. This argument is analyzed by examining historical and biblical cartography, territorial evolution, geography curriculum and textbooks, the Atlas of Israel and mental mapping by citizens. Varying portrayals of Israel’s historical, biblical, natural and political boundaries creates an ambiguous definition of Israel’s borders for citizens. In turn, this importantly shapes the present day religious and seculargeographies of the population of Israel as well as the political behaviours by the democratically representative Israeli government.

The Origins of the Park Jung-hee Syndrome in South Korea

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (01) ◽  
pp. 1950003
Author(s):  
EUNJUNG CHOI ◽  
JONGSEOK WOO
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Political Socialization ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
South Korean ◽  
The Past ◽  
System Output ◽  
The Empirical Analysis

In the past few decades, post-democratization politics in South Korea have witnessed an upsurge in authoritarian nostalgia, called the “Park Jung-hee syndrome.” This paper examines the origins of public nostalgia for the authoritarian dictator by putting two theoretical arguments, i.e., the socialization thesis and the system output thesis, to an empirical test. This paper utilizes the 2010 Korea Democracy Barometer from the Korea Barometer and the 2010 and the 2015 Korean National Identity Survey from the East Asia Institute. The empirical analysis of the South Korean case strongly supports the political socialization argument, suggesting that citizens’ yearning for Park Jung-hee is not merely an outcome of the negative evaluations of the democratic governments’ performances. Rather, their authoritarian nostalgia is in large part an outcome of their political socialization during the Park dictatorship. The analysis implies that, although a resurgence of the Park Jung-hee syndrome in post-democratization South Korea is not expected to derail the country’s route to democratic deepening, it may continue to be a main source of political division in partisan and electoral politics in the future.

Introduction to The Indonesian Legal System: Major Developments in the Past Decade

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-72
Author(s):  
Hesti Setyowati ◽  
M. Harris S. Toengkagie
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
The Past ◽  
Legal Foundation ◽  
National Ideology ◽  
Customary Laws ◽  
The Law ◽  
Law And Justice

Abstract Indonesia is an archipelagic country that has endured 350 years of western colonization. Its people comprise diverse ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds, all living in more than 17.000 islands spread throughout the archipelago. The development of the Indonesian legal system are considered as unique since it comprises the legacy of colonization, combined with the customary laws of various tribes. It is heavily infl uenced by Islam-the religion of the majority of its citizens, and the people’s own perception of law and justice following the colonial era. The undisputable fact on the variety of ethnic groups, cultures and religions formulate the desire for national ideology which promotes a unity of such diversity. As the result, each of the laws is formulated with reference to the principle of unity and democracy carried out in accordance with the national ideology. 60 years after its independence, the Law in Indonesia has shown great strides in its development. All of the developments are claimed to fulfi ll its goal of achieving a modern nation with solid legal foundation, without sacrifi cing its national identity.

Twentieth‐Century China

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uradyn E. Bulag
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Ethnic Relations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Contemporary China ◽  
Acculturation Process ◽  
Political Concept

This article invokes a Chinese political concept of ‘sinicization’, aiming to capture the nature of ethnic relations in China historically, and the political fate of ethnic groups in contemporary China. Sinicization has powerful genealogical and governmental dimensions; it is not primarily an ‘acculturation’ process as it is understood generally. Sinicization may not kill people directly, but it murders the non- Chinese sense of genealogical differences and their polities. The discussion concludes that sinicization has made a remarkable success in the PRC more than at any other time in Chinese history. Chinese policies have been directed at destroying the possibility that non-Chinese national identity might have any political meaning, at destroying the minorities' capacity to think and engage in politics independently as sovereign ethnic groups.

YEZID SAYIGH, Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949–1993 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, and Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997). Pp. 96. £70.00 cloth.

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-196
Author(s):  
Ann M. Lesch
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actor ◽  
Armed Struggle ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Movement ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Palestinian National Movement ◽  
Past Half

Yezid Sayigh's encylopedic history focuses on the role that the idea of armed struggle played in the Palestinian national movement as it evolved over the past half-century. His central thesis is that “armed struggle provided the political impulse and organisational dynamic in the evolution of Palestinian national identity and in the formation of parastatal institutions and a bureaucratic elite, the nucleus of government” (p. vii). The concept of armed struggle reforged Palestinian national identity, mobilized Palestinians, provided political legitimization to the Palestinian movement, made the Palestinians a distinct political actor in relation to the Arab states, helped to create institutions that could form the basis of a government, and established a well-defined political elite. Thus, even though Palestinian leaders never transformed the armed struggle into a people's war along the lines of Algeria or Vietnam, and never liberated any part of Palestine by force, armed struggle served other important, statist functions.

The Precarious Life and Slow Death of the Mixed Courts of Egypt

1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan J. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
The Political ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Court System ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Turmoil

Over the past century, most states of the Middle East have attempted to strengthen and centralize their legal systems, often following European models. Egypt undertook one of the first steps in that direction with its mixed-court system. These courts, which had jurisdiction in civil and commercial cases that involved a foreigner, however remotely, operated from 1876 until 1949. That this system could survive the political turmoil of those years, far outliving the circumstances which brought it into being, is remarkable.

RECONSIDERING THE IRISH ACT OF UNION

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 399-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.J. Connolly
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
The Political ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
The Past ◽  
Starting Point

AbstractTHE political, administrative and social consequences of the union of Great Britain and Ireland, and even more the eventual unravelling of the structures it created, have for the greater part of the past century provided Irish historians with a major theme. By contrast the measure itself has received little sustained analysis or discussion. F.R. Bolton's monograph, first published in 1966, remains – more than three decades later – the standard reference. In part this is a tribute to the depth, breadth and penetration of Bolton's account. But there is also at least the suggestion that the negotiation and passage of the union legislation, during 1799–1800, is to be seen as unproblematic, a relatively straightforward event providing a terminus or a starting point for discussion of the more complex and challenging periods on either side.

Reviving Albert Camus: Nonviolence and Pro-Independence PR Activism in Catalonia

2020 ◽  
pp. 000276422098111
Author(s):  
Jordi Xifra
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Albert Camus ◽  
The Political ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Spanish Society ◽  
The Past ◽  
Separatist Movement ◽  
Activist Groups ◽  
Nationalist Parties

In recent years, the electoral situation in Spain, has been marked by the issue of Catalan independence, which has conditioned the electoral agenda of all parties and the frames of political discourse. Against the idea of a violent movement that the Spanish nationalist parties and government want to transmit to Spanish society about the separatist movement, the nationalist parties’ and Catalan government turn to nonviolent discourse and action. This nonviolent behavior is based on what in the past century was defended by some public intellectuals, such as Albert Camus. Indeed, Camus is our exemplar because he also raises issues that continue to be relevant, especially in advocating principles and methods of nonviolent political action. Furthermore, Camus did so in situations of war and injustice through tactics typical of political communication the of activist groups. This article wants to show how current and how effective the ideas of Camus are today, when it is 60 years since his death, in some national electoral discourses and actions, and serve for activism PR purposes in the political communication frame.

Buddhist Apologetics and a Genealogy of Comparative Religion in Siam

Numen ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thongchai Winichakul
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Comparative Religion ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Integral Component ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
First Time

Contemporary identity in Thailand is prominently configured through an allegiance of reformed Buddhism with the modern Thai state. What is not well understood, however, is the centrality of “comparative religion” to the construction of this naturalized religionationalist identity, for interreligious study in Siam has been an integral component of modern Thai identity since the mid-nineteenth century. First, the emergence of “religion” as an object of study in modern Thailand is explored here, in an effort to detail the genealogy of this field for the first time. The articulation of Thai religious identity is identified as a response to intellectual challenges from colonial influences, especially the reproofs of Buddhism by Christian missionaries and Orientalist scholarship on religion. Thai Buddhist intellectuals responded to these challenges by robustly countering that Theravada Buddhism was, in fact, superior to Christianity and other religions. Finally, I explore the contentions between the Thai Buddhist apologetics and their opponents as a genealogy of the knowledge in comparative religion in Siam over the past century and a half. Given this genealogy, the field of comparative religion in Thailand is revealed as being far from a disinterested pursuit of knowledge; rather, it is part of the formation and reaffirmation of Thai national identity.

Maps and Spaces

2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-145
Author(s):  
Christine Noelle-Karimi
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Middle East ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
State Building ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Inquiry ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
The Past

Students of Afghan history come up against two sets of academic demarcations and appropriations. First, as Nile Green points out in his introduction to this roundtable, Afghanistan as a field of study tends to fall off the edge of the scholarly traditions associated with the regional denominations of the Middle East, South Asia, and Central Asia. Second, the tendency to view history through the lens of present-day national entities presents an impediment to historical inquiry and not only in Afghanistan. The attempt to streamline the past to fit a consistent narrative of state-building may serve to foster a national identity, yet it is of little use in gaining a deeper understanding of the political, social, and economic processes at work in a given period.

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