Who is China?

Author(s):  
Benjamin Tze Ern Ho

This chapter examines Chinese national identity as a core element of China’s political worldview and claims to exceptionalism. Using a sociological structure of liquid modernity, the chapter analyzes how Chinese national identity is being considered and constructed within domestic conditions and the extent to which it affects social capital and the cohesiveness of Chinese social life. I argue that liquid modernity has resulted in greater fragmentation between Chinese private and public life as well as complicating efforts to construct a unified sense of collective national identity (Chinese-ness). To remedy these challenges, the Chinese government utilizes nationalism to cultivate domestic support by projecting itself as good vis-à-vis the West, which is scapegoated as evil and the root cause of all Chinese ills.

Author(s):  
أسامة محمد أبو نحل

ملخص البحث إن تعبير أو مصطلح الكيان، لم يظهر من قبل في قاموس السياسة الدولية؛ وإنما هو بدعة فلسطينية، اقتضى وجوده - الحاجة الماسة - لإبراز معلم سياسي يقود الفلسطينيين نحو الانعتاق من ربقة الاستعمار، الذي هيمن على شتّى مناحي حياتهم السياسية والاجتماعية. فمنذ أن احتلت بريطانيا فلسطين عام 1917، مروراً بفقدان هويتهم الوطنية بالكامل، بعد إنشاء الكيان الإسرائيلي عام 1948؛ اضطر الفلسطينيون للبحث عن قارب نجاة، يوجههم نحو إقامة كيان سياسي يضم ما تبقى من فلسطين التاريخية، فكان إنشاء منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية عام 1964، لتحفظ للفلسطينيين شيئا من هويتهم الوطنية. ولكن بعد احتلال إسرائيل ما تبقى من فلسطين التاريخية عام 1967، حاول بعض وجهاء وزعامات الضفة الغربية بطريقٍ أو بآخر - مستغلين غياب أي سلطة فلسطينية أو أردنية في مناطقهم - إقامة كيان فلسطيني مصطنع في الضفة الغربية بمباركة إسرائيلية – إن ارتضت ذلك – وإن حاولوا أن يغلّفوه بمسمى ";;;;دولة فلسطينية";;;;، وذلك من خلال تجاوز صلاحيات منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية؛ والتي من المفروض أن تكون صاحبة الرأي الأول والأخير، في اتخاذ خطوات على طريق التسوية السلمية، وذلك بعد موافقة كافة فئات الشعب الفلسطيني سواء في الأراضي المحتلة أو في الشتات؛ لكن تلك المحاولات باءت بالفشل الذريع؛ بعد أن حوربت وتمَّت تصفية بعض دعاتها والمنظّرين لها جسدياً. الكلمات الرئيسة: الكيان الفلسطيني، الهوية الوطنية، وجهاء الضفة الغربية، المقاومة الفلسطينية، أحداث أيلول. Abstract The term of entity was not seen before in the lexicon of international politics. It is a Palestinian innovation. There was an urgent Palestinian need for its presence because in order to get their freedom, people of Palestine suffered too much from the occupation and colonialism, which controlled all aspects of their political and social life since Britain has occupied Palestine in 1917. Then after creation of Israel in 1948, Palestinian people lost their identity. Therefore, Palestinians have been forced to search for a lifeboat to guide them towards the establishment of a political entity comprising the remainder of the historic Palestine. Hence, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was established in 1964 to preserve the rest of the Palestinian national identity. But after Israel has occupied the rest of historic Palestine in 1967, some of the leaders of the West Bank tried -some how- to establish a Palestinian entity with blessing of ";;;;Israel";;;; -if it agrees- taking advantage of the absence of any Palestinian or Jordanian authority in their areas, to call it as a ";;;;Palestinian State,";;;; by skipping the decisions of (PLO), which is the one who is supposed to decide and take steps in the peace process, of course after all the Palestinian people inside and outside Palestine accept this issue, but all these attempts have miserably failed and have been fought and some of its advocates and theorists were assassinated. Key Words: Palestinian Entity, National Identity, Notables of West Bank, Palestinian Resistance, September Events. Abstrak Istilah entiti sebelum ini tidak terlihat dalam leksikon politik antarabangsa , dan ia merupakan sesuatu yang amat diperlukan oleh rakyat  Palestin. Kewujudan entiti kenegaraan ini tetap penting bagi rakyat Palestin yang telah terlalu banyak menderita dari pendudukan untuk mendapatkan semula kebebasan mereka daripada kolonialisme yang telah berperanan memutuskan semua aspek-aspek kehidupan sosial dan politik mereka, semenjak daripada penjajahan Britain di Palestin pada 1917. Selepasnya, sejarah telah menyaksikan kehilangan identiti nasional Palestin, selepas penciptaan Israel dalam 1948, dan menjadikan rakyat Palestin terpaksa mencari sebuah bahtera penyelamat yang dapat mengemudikan mereka ke arah penubuhan satu entiti politik iaitu Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) yang tertubuh pada 1964 demi untuk berjuang mengekalkan saki-baki identiti nasional mereka yang masih tersisa. Tetapi selepas Israel berjaya menduduki wilayah-wilayah Palestin yang lain pada 1967, beberapa pemimpin Tebing Barat telah mencuba –dalam beberapa cara- untuk mewujudkan satu entiti Palestin dibawah belas dan restu Israel –jika dipersetujui –dengan mengambil peluang ketiadaan mana-mana kuasa politik Palestin atau Jordan di kawasan mereka untuk mewujudkan Negara Palestin dengan membelakangi keputusan(PLO) yang sepatutnya turut berperanan dalam langkah-langkah  proses damai tersebut yang sepatutnya diputuskan berdasarkan pendapat semua penduduk Palestin di dalam dan di luar wilayah tersebut untuk menerima atau menolak isu ini. Walaubagaimanpun semua percubaan tersebut menemui kegagalan dengan terbunuhnya beberapa tokoh pelopor idea penubuhan negara mengikut acuan Israel yang berkenaan. Kata Kunci: Entiti Palestin, Identiti Kenegaraan, Tebing Barat, Penentangan Palestin, Peristiwa September.


Author(s):  
Thomas B. Pepinsky ◽  
R. William Liddle ◽  
Saiful Mujani

The resurgence of Islam in private and public life, in Indonesia and elsewhere, is one of the most important phenomena of our time. Its implications for politics and society are also widely misunderstood. Piety among Indonesian Muslims is essentially unrelated to most of the basic problems of political and economic life that analysts of religion and public life have addressed. Instead, the social and economic transformations that are co-occurring alongside the resurgence of Islam in Indonesia are the best predictors of how Muslims think and behave. These findings reorient our understanding of Islam and democracy in contemporary Indonesia. They should also inform policymakers interested in Islam, religious revitalization, democracy, and relations between the West and the Muslim world.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Clayton Fordahl ◽  
Berglind Ragnarsdóttir

Abstract Lengthy debates over the process of secularization in the West have concluded. In many ways, secularization theorists appear to have “won” the debate: traditional measures of religious vitality reveal a decline in religion. Yet, recent events, especially those involving politics and national identity, have encouraged scholars and members of the public to reconsider the ways in which something like religion might endure and influence public life in secularized Western nations. This paper uses the “exceptional-typical” case of Iceland—a modern, Western, secularized country of comparatively small population size—to observe and conceptualize a variety of processes which are here collectively named “post-secularization.” Its findings suggest that processes which may appear as unrelated or opposing forces—the emergence of new religious movements, the transformation of traditional religious symbols into profane branding, far right nationalist movements—may be part of a single, post-secularization process. Secularization, having fissured the sacred, leaves religion a pliable cultural tool.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengcheng You

This article reviews four major Chinese animated adaptations based on the classic Journey to the West. It shows how these adaptations, spanning four historical phases of modern China, encapsulate changes in Chinese national identity. Close readings underpin a developmental narrative about how Chinese animated adaptations of this canonical text strive to negotiate the multimodal expressions of homegrown folklore traditions, technical influences of western animation, and domestic political situations across time. This process has identified aesthetic dilemmas around adaptations that oscillate between national allegory and individual destiny, verisimilitude and the fantastic quest for meaning. In particular, the subjectivisation of Monkey King on the screen, embodying the transition from primitivistic impulse, youthful idealism and mature practicality up to responsible stewardship, presents how an iconic national figure encapsulates the real historical time of China.


Author(s):  
يونس عبد الله ما تشنغ بين الصيني

الملخّص إن بقاء الإسلام، ورغبة المسلمين في الحفاظ على عقيدة الإسلام، وشريعته السمحاء في الصين راجعة إلى جهود علمائنا الأجلاء الذين نَهَلُوا العلم الصافي من مَعِينِ القرآن والسنة. وخدمتهم من خلال ترجمة معاني القرآن الكريم، وتبسيط العقيدة والشريعة باللغة الصينية خير دليل على ذلك. ويحاول الباحث تسليط الضوء من خلال هذا البحث على طبيعة الإسلام في أرض الصين، كاشفا أمر وضع الإسلام وطبيعة حال المسلمين، وتحدياتهم قديما وحديثا، مبينا محاولتهم على حفاظ دين الإسلام، وأداء شعائره. ويؤمن الباحث من خلال توصيف حالة الإسلام والمسلمين، أن صلاح المسلمين، وبقاءهم كأمة مسالمة لا رغبة لها؛ إلا في الإصلاح، والتعمير في الأرض، فهو لا يتحقق إلا بإصلاح النفس، وعودتها إلى طاعة الله سرا وعلانية دون الإنغماس في تحقيق الرغبات المادية، وإشباع المطامع الشهوانية من خلال جمع حطام الدنيا دون الالتفات إلى حلال وحرام، وطاعة ومعصية.    الكلمات المفتاحيّة: جهود العلماء، ثقافة الإسلام، مصادر الإسلام الأصلية، التحديات، الصين، الدعوة.                                                                                             Abstract The continuation of Islam in China and the aspiration of the Muslims to maintain Islamic faith and its true tolerant legal system retract to the struggles of our respected scholars who learnt the knowledge of the Qurʼan and the Prophetic traditions (al-Sunnah). The services they rendered in translating the meaning of the Qurʼan, simplifying the creed and the legal system of Islam into Chinese language are good indications in that context. In this paper, the researcher is trying to highlight the normal nature of Islam in China by exploring the position and nature of the Muslims, their contemporary and past challenges, and revealing their attempts to preserve the religion of Islam in discharging the religious rites. Through the depiction of Islam and the Muslims, the researcher believes that the wellbeing of Muslims and their continuous survival to be a peace-loving nation could not be achieved without the reform and proper development through self-reformation and its return to full submission to Allah both in private and public life, and without indulging in attainment of material desires and satiating the lust of accumulating ephemeral materials of this world without paying any heed to lawfulness or unlawfulness, or to being obedient or disobedient. Keywords: Effort of the Scholars, Islamic Culture, Noble Origin of Islam, Challenges, Propagation of the Religion.


Author(s):  
يونس عبد الله ما تشنغ بين الصيني

الملخّصإن بقاء الإسلام، ورغبة المسلمين في الحفاظ على عقيدة الإسلام، وشريعته السمحاء في الصين راجعة إلى جهود علمائنا الأجلاء الذين نَهَلُوا العلم الصافي من مَعِينِ القرآن والسنة. وخدمتهم من خلال ترجمة معاني القرآن الكريم، وتبسيط العقيدة والشريعة باللغة الصينية خير دليل على ذلك. ويحاول الباحث تسليط الضوء من خلال هذا البحث على طبيعة الإسلام في أرض الصين، كاشفا أمر وضع الإسلام وطبيعة حال المسلمين، وتحدياتهم قديما وحديثا، مبينا محاولتهم على حفاظ دين الإسلام، وأداء شعائره. ويؤمن الباحث من خلال توصيف حالة الإسلام والمسلمين، أن صلاح المسلمين، وبقاءهم كأمة مسالمة لا رغبة لها؛ إلا في الإصلاح، والتعمير في الأرض، فهو لا يتحقق إلا بإصلاح النفس، وعودتها إلى طاعة الله سرا وعلانية دون الإنغماس في تحقيق الرغبات المادية، وإشباع المطامع الشهوانية من خلال جمع حطام الدنيا دون الالتفات إلى حلال وحرام، وطاعة ومعصية.   الكلمات المفتاحيّة: جهود العلماء، ثقافة الإسلام، مصادر الإسلام الأصلية، التحديات، الصين، الدعوة.                                                                                   AbstractThe continuation of Islam in China and the aspiration of the Muslims to maintain Islamic faith and its true tolerant legal system retract to the struggles of our respected scholars who learnt the knowledge of the Qurʼan and the Prophetic traditions (al-Sunnah). The services they rendered in translating the meaning of the Qurʼan, simplifying the creed and the legal system of Islam into Chinese language are good indications in that context. In this paper, the researcher is trying to highlight the normal nature of Islam in China by exploring the position and nature of the Muslims, their contemporary and past challenges, and revealing their attempts to preserve the religion of Islam in discharging the religious rites. Through the depiction of Islam and the Muslims, the researcher believes that the wellbeing of Muslims and their continuous survival to be a peace-loving nation could not be achieved without the reform and proper development through self-reformation and its return to full submission to Allah both in private and public life, and without indulging in attainment of material desires and satiating the lust of accumulating ephemeral materials of this world without paying any heed to lawfulness or unlawfulness, or to being obedient or disobedient.Keywords: Effort of the Scholars, Islamic Culture, Noble Origin of Islam, Challenges, Propagation of the Religion.


2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael DeLand

This article investigates the production and re-production of a recurring pickup basketball game at a public park in Santa Monica, California. I argue that it is best understood as a recurring “scene”—an ecologically shaped, biographically significant, interactionally accomplished, and narratively organized pattern of social life—colloquially known as the “Ocean Run.” Drawing on Kenneth Burke’s dramatism, I suggest that the scene is constituted by the interrelation of the park’s socioecological landscape (“stage”), the diverse personal meanings that players construct through their participation (“cast”), and the practical work of re-creating the scene through situated interactions (“performance”). The park stage facilitates a sense of intimacy for players with very different personal relationships to each other and to the scene. Those players then actively mix themselves up, re-creating the scene through an “improvisational” style of team formation. Place, people, and action are dialectically related in the patterning of public life. This method of analysis is replicable in a wide variety of public scenes and sets up concrete grounds for comparison and theoretical generalizability.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Wiebrecht

The freedom of press is one aspect that leaders from the West often criticise about China. As former British colony, Hong Kong has been able to preserve its special status with constitutional rights and liberties that also include the freedom of press. However, in recent years, sentiments of increased influence from Beijing have led to fears that it would curb the freedoms enjoyed by residents of the Special Administrative Region. However, instead of clear unambiguous interferences, Beijing has opted for an indirect approach that is predominantly characterised by the salience of economic considerations in reporting news binding the media outlets closer to the position of Beijing. This article shows that the South China Morning Post has undergone an editorial shift that moves it closer to the position of the Chinese government.


Author(s):  
Anna Sergeevna Konopiy ◽  
Boris Andreevich Borisov

The subject of this research is digital national currencies of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation. The advent of the new digital era entails inevitable, objectively dictated digital transformations of all spheres of social life. The financial and banking sector in Russia, China, and other countries, is in need for legislative-digital regulation by implementing digital fiat currency. One of the most promising vectors of development is the creation and introduction of new forms of currencies into circulation, which would be recognized by public authority as a legal means of payment, as well as subject to effective oversight by government bodies. The novelty of this research lies in the comparative legal analysis of the experience, as well as the stages of implementation of digital national currency in the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China. The article raised a pressing issue on feasibility of introducing digital ruble into the Russian reality, and thus, discusses successful experience of the Chinese government that a millennium ago was first to invent paper currency, and now is one of the world leaders to introduce digital currency alongside cash money. The concept of “digital currency” is often identified with cryptocurrencies and payment systems, which prompted the authors to conduct a comparative analysis of these terms. The analysis of Russian and Chinese legislation in the area of digital currency, as well as the established practice of implementing a new monetary form into the country’s economy, allowed outlining the pros and cons of such innovation.


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