Language and Identity: Chinese Nation-Building, Localization And
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Language and Identity: Chinese Nation-Building, Localization and Individualization By Yunjing Feng A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts and Culture In Graduate School of Humanities Comparative Cultural Analysis University of Amsterdam Instructor: David Duindam 15 June 2015 Feng 2 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Chapter One: Chinese Language Policy and Mono-Nation-Building ................................................... 15 1.1 Language and Nation .................................................................................................................. 15 1.2 Putonghua Promotion and Chinese Mono-Nation-Building ....................................................... 21 1.3 Relationship Between Putonghua and Regional Languages ....................................................... 30 Chapter Two: Hong Kong Identity and Chineseness ............................................................................ 39 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 39 2.2 The Formation of Hong Kong Identity......................................................................................... 41 2.3 Hong Kong Identity and Chinese Identity ................................................................................... 50 Chapter Three: Chinese Individualization and the Rise of Regionalism .............................................. 57 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 57 3.2 The Rise of Chinese Individualization ......................................................................................... 61 3.3 Nostalgia and Regionalism .......................................................................................................... 72 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 83 Work Cited ............................................................................................................................................ 89 Feng 3 Abstract In the context of globalization, Chinese nation-building, localization and individualization are three prominent trends that supplement each other and introduce a new mechanism for different groups to interact. This thesis will mainly focus on the interrelationship between these three processes and examine how language facilitates the construction of cultural identity of different groups. We will first discuss how Chinese nation-building promotes its national language to achieve national unity. Later on, we will probe into the relationship between Hong Kong identity and Chinese identity in order to reveal the correlation between localization and nation-building. In the end, we will analyze the rise of Chinese individualization through our analysis of its “Chineseness” and “newness”; what is more, we will link the process of individualization with the rise of regionalism. Key Words: Nation-building; Localization; Individualization; China; Identity; Language Feng 4 Introduction Globalization, which introduces a new mechanism for global interaction, generates three tendencies simultaneously: nation-building, localization and individualization. First of all, global migration along with the increasing social mobility interrogate the fixed physical boundary of territories and lead to a trend of deterritorization. Although “nation” is not a novel and recent concept, the idea of nation (the ideology of nationalism) is a modern product. In the epoch of globalization, frequent transnational migrations intensify the contacts between different nations and give rise to national awareness, which enables people to imagine their nation as an unique group. Nation-states engage in a process of nation-building in order to reconstruct the boundary of national identity and reconnect its citizens based on an imaginary social bond. While globalization breaks the monopoly of the state and accelerates the process of decentralization, local groups develop into another rising force that both competes against and negotiates with nation-states. Globalization allows for the rise of local groups on the one hand but meanwhile blurs the line between different regional groups. Consequently, people’s cultural identity becomes fragmented and hybridized. To repair a sense of anxiety, local groups adopt a binary approach to construct an unique regional identity by highlighting its difference from others. In that sense, localization can be seen as another struggle for self-affirmation, not at a national scale but in a regional level. The third trend of individualization evolves from the process of modernization that redefines the relation Feng 5 between individuals and the state. Modernization, which brings about the division of labor, the privation of economy, the mobilization of the population and the ubiquity of social media, liberates individuals from their previous social confinements and raises their awareness of “self” as a subject rather than an object in society. This new status of individuals marks the rise of individualization. The social-cultural anthropologist Arjun Appadurai points out that with the advent of globalization, nation-states face a “crisis” which renders their legitimacy insecure (20). According to Appadurai, nation is a system that “appears poorly equipped to deal with the interlinked diasporas of people and images that mark the here and now ”(19). He summarizes two major factors that disturb the boundary of nation: one is transnational migration which accelerates border-crossing activities, and the other is mass mediation that links producers with audiences across national boundaries and produces several “diasporic public spheres” (Appadurai 22). If the geographical border fails to distinguish one nation from another, then imagination offers an alternative to redefine the notion of nation. Benedict Anderson, an American scholar specializing in international studies and political science, proposes a theory of “imagined community” to address this crisis of nation. According to him, nation is “an imagined political community imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign” (Anderson 15). As he explains, the word “imagined” indicates that members within their community do not know most of their fellows (Anderson 15) while the term “community” means that the Feng 6 nation is conceived as a kind of comradeship and fraternity (Anderson 16). Under his theory, nation is no longer a spatial concept, but rather an “idea” of nation facilitated by people’s “doubleness of reading” (Anderson 37). This collective reading process creates a shared experience among people from different regions and thereby strengthens their identification with “strangers”. Since the rise of national consciousness is closely related to the crisis of nation, it is reasonable to perceive the idea of nation as a product of globalization. In the context of globalization, China addresses this “crisis of nation” through a process of nation-building. Its nation-building mainly strives for two goals: one is to promote the state’s new image worldwide to differentiate from other nations; the other is to unite the nation by constructing an inclusive national identity. The emergence of the “Chineseness” discourse illustrates the strategy of Chinese nation-building to promote its self-defined national image in the global stage and counteract the hegemony of the West. Rey Chow, a cultural critic specializing in post-colonial theory, suggests that the previous notion of “Chinese” emerges as a cultural supplement to the western practices (4). “There remains in the West, against the current facade of welcoming the non-Western others into putatively interdisciplinary and cross-cultural exchanges, a continual tendency to stigmatize and ghettoize non-Western culture precisely by way of ethnic, national labels” (Chow 4). The notion of “Chinese”, according to Chow, is a label imposed and promoted by the West, which remains “untheorized and taken for granted” (7). However, the new concept of “Chineseness” Feng 7 put forwarded by Chinese intellectuals, reflects the nation’s struggle for self-determination. Guohua Zeng points out in his Ph. D thesis that the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games serves the purpose of Chinese nation-building to change its old image into a modern one (50). This national strategy to articulate a new “Chineseness”, as Zeng argues, promotes a subject with equal standing with the west, but meanwhile its “to-be-looked-at-ness” feature implies a powerful gaze of the west (51). His statement reveals the paradox of “Chineseness” as a national strategy: on the one hand, it aims at building a new national identity as “Greater China” that challenges its previous stereotypes and displays its inclusiveness; on the other hand, it fails to cut off its connection with the west, just as it can neither avoid the influence of global interaction nor become self-sufficient. The chief objective of Chinese nation-building is to construct an