DOCSLIB.ORG

Between Ethnic and Civic

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Between Ethnic and Civic Between Ethnic and Civic: A Paradox of National Identification in Contemporary Taiwan Chien-min Yang Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2014 © 2014 Chien-min Yang All rights reserved ABSTRACT Between Ethnic and Civic: A Paradox of National Identification in Contemporary Taiwan Chien-min Yang This dissertation analyzes the paradox of national identity in contemporary Taiwan. Under the context of democratic transition and new dynamics of exchanges with Mainland China, Taiwan people's national identification has demonstrated a significant change in the past two decades. Many empirical studies confirmed the emergence of a new Taiwanese identity, the sharp decline of traditional Chinese identity, and presented a clear trend of national identity change in Taiwan. However, there are several puzzling phenomena, such as the growth of dual identification (both "Chinese and Taiwanese"), the divergent rationale for the national identity and statehood preferences (Reunification vs. Independence), and the fluctuation of various national identity change patterns in the society left unanswered in the previous studies. Following the transition process-oriented approach, this dissertation focuses on the underlying organization principles (ethnic-cultural vs. civic-territorial mechanisms) that people take to define and redefine themselves in national terms, and assumes national identification changes and various change patterns in Taiwan were derived from different advantages between the two underlying identity formation mechanisms in response to the external transformations - democratization, new stages of cross-strait exchanges, and the rise of China in the world - that the society have experienced in the past two decades. In light of this new analytical approach, this dissertation explores and explains the changes of national identification in the past two decades - the paradox and puzzling aspects of two "conflicting" national identities, the existence of "dual identities" and both "Unification and Independence" acceptable in a large segment of the population, the divergent rationales behind the national identity and statehood preferences, the decline of Chinese identity in two-stages with the new dynamics of cross-strait exchanges and the rise of China in the international society, and, finally, how Taiwanese identity becomes civic and national out of the democratic transition practices in the past two decades. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 National Identity in Taiwan: A Paradox ......................................................................................................... 1 Research Questions and Analytical Approach ............................................................................................... 2 National Identity Crisis in Taiwan .................................................................................................................. 6 National Identity Studies in Taiwan ............................................................................................................... 8 Definition of Nation Identity ........................................................................................................................ 11 Chapter Arrangement ................................................................................................................................... 17 CHAPTER 2: NATIONAL IDENTITY DISCOURSES IN CONTEMPORARY TAIWAN .......................................................................................................................... 25 Statehood Preferences and National Identity Discourses ............................................................................. 25 Chinese Nationalism versus Taiwanese Nationalism ................................................................................... 32 Chinese Nationalism: A Traditional View ................................................................................................... 33 Chinese Nationalist Discourses in Taiwan ................................................................................................... 39 Taiwanese Nationalist Discourses ................................................................................................................ 43 Essentialism in Taiwanese nationalist discourses ......................................................................................... 45 History and culture factors in Taiwanese nationalism discourses ................................................................ 48 Common interest in Taiwanese nationalist discourses ................................................................................. 52 The Multi-ethnic turn in the Taiwan nationalist discourses .......................................................................... 53 Civic-Territorial Taiwanese nationalist discourses ....................................................................................... 57 National Boundary and Nation-state Relationship: A Summary .................................................................. 62 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 64 i CHAPTER 3: EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION IN CONTEMPORARY TAIWAN ---- GENERAL TRENDS AND SOCIO- DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS ........................................................................................ 67 National Identification Changes at the Aggregate Level .............................................................................. 73 New Measurement of Statehood Preference under Favorable Conditions ................................................... 78 National Identity and Socio-demographic Attributes ................................................................................... 80 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 103 CHAPTER 4: NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION IN CONTEMPORARY TAIWAN -- INTERNAL DYNAMICS AND CHANGE PATTERNS .............................................. 106 Two-stage decline of Chinese identity ....................................................................................................... 107 Stability and Consistency: National Identity vs. Statehood Preference ...................................................... 110 Dispersion of Change Directions: National Identity vs. Statehood Preference .......................................... 112 National Identification Change Patterns: Socio-demographic Analysis ..................................................... 117 Multinomial Logit Regression Models ....................................................................................................... 120 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 125 CHAPTER 5: NATIONAL IDENTITY TRANSFORMATION AND DEMOCRATIZATION .................................................................................................. 137 Democratization and Civic Nationalism: A Dynamic Relationship ........................................................... 137 Symbolic Mechanism: Constitutional Reforms Have Transformed the Underlying "One China" Principle and the Symbol of National Identity ............................................................................................ 140 Massive Political Participation -- A Daily Plebiscite for the Development of Civic Nationalism ............. 145 Mechanism of Electoral Politics -- From Ethnic Mobilization to Civic Discourses ................................... 155 Convergent Taiwan-oriented Identification Emerging? ............................................................................. 166 Personal In-depth Interviews ...................................................................................................................... 168 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 174 ii CHAPTER 6: CROSS-STRAIT DYNAMICS AND INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS ................................................................................................................ 177 Cross-Strait Exchanges ............................................................................................................................... 177 Cross-Strait Interactions and National Identification ................................................................................. 179 New Cross-Strait Exchanges and National Identification .......................................................................... 183 International Dimension ............................................................................................................................. 191 International Institutions, Globalization and National Identity Change ....................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 11. Nationalism, Nation Making, & the Postcolonial States of Asia, Africa
    After Independence: Making and Protecting the Nation in Postcolonial and Postcommunist States Lowell W. Barrington, Editor http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=126246 The University of Michigan Press 11. Nationalism, Nation Making, & the Postcolonial States of Asia, Africa, & Eurasia RONALD GRIGOR SUNY I have benefited enormously from Lowell Barrington’s clarifying essays on ethnicity and nationalism. His distinction insisting on territorial- ity for the nation but not for ethnicity is very useful. At the same time, in our many discussions, I have argued that his de‹nition of the nation remains, for my money, too objectivist. So I have amended the de‹nitions he offers in his introductory chapter as a prelude to my own discussion of nationalism after independence. My additions are in brackets. “What makes nations different from other groups,” writes Barrington, “is that they are collectives [who feel they are] united by shared cultural features (such as language, myths, and values) and the belief in the right to territorial self-determination. Put another way, they are groups of people [who believe they are] linked by unifying cultural characteristics and the desire to con- trol a territory that is thought of as the group’s rightful homeland.” My amendments here are meant to emphasize the unease I have about too concrete a notion of “cultural features” or “cultural characteristics.” Having heard all my life about the importance of preserving ethnic culture and remaining unsure about what that entailed, I subscribe to a notion
    [Show full text]
  • Spencer Sunshine*
    Journal of Social Justice, Vol. 9, 2019 (© 2019) ISSN: 2164-7100 Looking Left at Antisemitism Spencer Sunshine* The question of antisemitism inside of the Left—referred to as “left antisemitism”—is a stubborn and persistent problem. And while the Right exaggerates both its depth and scope, the Left has repeatedly refused to face the issue. It is entangled in scandals about antisemitism at an increasing rate. On the Western Left, some antisemitism manifests in the form of conspiracy theories, but there is also a hegemonic refusal to acknowledge antisemitism’s existence and presence. This, in turn, is part of a larger refusal to deal with Jewish issues in general, or to engage with the Jewish community as a real entity. Debates around left antisemitism have risen in tandem with the spread of anti-Zionism inside of the Left, especially since the Second Intifada. Anti-Zionism is not, by itself, antisemitism. One can call for the Right of Return, as well as dissolving Israel as a Jewish state, without being antisemitic. But there is a Venn diagram between anti- Zionism and antisemitism, and the overlap is both significant and has many shades of grey to it. One of the main reasons the Left can’t acknowledge problems with antisemitism is that Jews persistently trouble categories, and the Left would have to rethink many things—including how it approaches anti- imperialism, nationalism of the oppressed, anti-Zionism, identity politics, populism, conspiracy theories, and critiques of finance capital—if it was to truly struggle with the question. The Left understands that white supremacy isn’t just the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis, but that it is part of the fabric of society, and there is no shortcut to unstitching it.
    [Show full text]
  • Nationalism, Internationalism and Chinese Foreign Policy CHEN ZHIMIN*
    Journal of Contemporary China (2005), 14(42), February, 35–53 Nationalism, Internationalism and Chinese Foreign Policy CHEN ZHIMIN* This article examines the role of nationalism in shaping Chinese foreign policy in the history of contemporary China over the last 100 years. Nationalism is used here as an analytical term, rather than in the usual popular pejorative sense. By tracing the various expressions of contemporary Chinese nationalism, this article argues that nationalism is one of the key enduring driving forces which have shaped Chinese foreign policy over the period; as China increasingly integrates herself into this globalized and interdependent world and Chinese confidence grows, the current expression of Chinese nationalism is taking a more positive form, which incorporates an expanding component of internationalism. In recent years, nationalism has been one of the key focuses in the study of China’s foreign policy. In the 1990s, several Chinese writers started to invoke the concept of nationalism, both in their study of Chinese foreign policy and in their prescriptions for the Chinese foreign policy. Likewise, in English-language scholarship the study of Chinese nationalism largely sets the parameters of the debate about the future of Chinese foreign policy and the world’s response to a rising China. An overarching theme of this Western discourse is a gloomy concern with the worrisome nature of recent expressions of Chinese nationalism. Samuel P. Huntington was famously concerned about China’s intention ‘to bring to an end the
    [Show full text]
  • Taiwanese Eyes on the Modern: Cold War Dance Diplomacy And
    Taiwanese Eyes on the Modern: Cold War Dance Diplomacy and American Modern Dances in Taiwan, 1950–1980 Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Tsung-Hsin Lee, M.A. Graduate Program in Dance Studies The Ohio State University 2020 Dissertation Committee Hannah Kosstrin, Advisor Harmony Bench Danielle Fosler-Lussier Morgan Liu Copyrighted by Tsung-Hsin Lee 2020 2 Abstract This dissertation “Taiwanese Eyes on the Modern: Cold War Dance Diplomacy and American Modern Dances in Taiwan, 1950–1980” examines the transnational history of American modern dance between the United States and Taiwan during the Cold War era. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the Carmen De Lavallade-Alvin Ailey, José Limón, Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, and Alwin Nikolais dance companies toured to Taiwan under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. At the same time, Chinese American choreographers Al Chungliang Huang and Yen Lu Wong also visited Taiwan, teaching and presenting American modern dance. These visits served as diplomatic gestures between the members of the so-called Free World led by the U.S. Taiwanese audiences perceived American dance modernity through mixed interpretations under the Cold War rhetoric of freedom that the U.S. sold and disseminated through dance diplomacy. I explore the heterogeneous shaping forces from multiple engaging individuals and institutions that assemble this diplomatic history of dance, resulting in outcomes influencing dance histories of the U.S. and Taiwan for different ends. I argue that Taiwanese audiences interpreted American dance modernity as a means of embodiment to advocate for freedom and social change.
    [Show full text]
  • The Centralia the Origin and the Basics
    1 The Centralia The Origin and the Basics o see what China is and represents takes one to an ocean of information Tabout 20 percent of the humankind living on a continent over millennia. Appropriate to its mountainous volume, the existing knowledge of China is defiled by countless myths and distortions that often mislead even the most focused about China’s past, present, and future. Generations of students of China have translated and clarified much of the Chinese mystique. Many sturdy Chinese peculiarities, however, persist to impede standardization and general- ization of China studies that still critically need more historically grounded researches (Perry 1989, 579–91). To read the Chinese history holds a key to a proper understanding of China. Yet, the well-kept, rich, and massive Chi- nese historical records are particularly full of deliberate omissions, inadvertent inaccuracies, clever distortions, and blatant forgeries. A careful, holistic, and revisionist deciphering of the Chinese history, therefore, is the prerequisite to opening the black box of Chinese peculiarities. The first step is to clarify the factual fundamentals of China, the Centralia, that are often missed, miscon- strued, or misconceived. The revealed and rectified basics inform well the rich sources and the multiple origins of China as a world empire. This chapter thus explores the nomenclature, the ecogeography, the peoples, and the writing of history in the Chinese World. The starting point is the feudal society prior to the third century BCE, the pre-Qin Era when the Eastern Eurasian continent was under a Westphalia-like world order. The Chinese Nomenclature: More than Just Semantics China (Sina in Latin, Cīna in Sanskrit, and Chine in French) is most prob- ably the phonetic translation of a particular feudal state, later a kingdom in today’s Western China (䦎⚥ the Qin or the Chin, 770–221 BCE) that 9 © 2017 State University of New York Press, Albany 10 The China Order became an empire and united and ruled the bulk of East Asian continent (䦎㛅 221–207 BCE).
    [Show full text]
  • Nationalism Perceptions of Pre-Service Social Studies Teachers in Turkey
    Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.8, No.8, 2017 Nationalism Perceptions of Pre-Service Social Studies Teachers in Turkey Ali Altıkulaç 1* Osman Sabancı 2 1. Faculty of Education, Çukurova University, Balcalı, Adana, Turkey 2. Faculty of Education, Gazi University, Teknikokullar, Ankara, Turkey * E-mail of the corresponding author: [email protected] This article was presented at IV. International Symposium on History Education (1-3 Semtember 2016) held in Mu ğla, Turkey. Abstract The purpose of this paper is to reveal the perception of nationalism of pre-service teachers who will teach Social Studies course in a multidimensional manner. In the study, a total of 381 pre-service teachers who study in department of Social Studies from different universities located in different regions of Turkey was defined as the study group and a descriptive model was used as the basis of the research design. The data include both quantitative and qualitative dimensions. In the scope of the research, a questionnaire was created to determine pre-service teachers’ perception of nationalism. This form consists of three sections. The participants’ demographic data, opinion questions and the nationalism perception scale are presented in the sections, respectively. The questionnaire was applied to the pre-service teachers studying in different regions of Turkey. At the end of the research, various results were obtained regarding the nationalism perceptions of pre-service social studies teachers. Keywords: Education, Social studies, Nationalism 1. Introduction When teaching programs are studied, it is remarkably realized that the concepts such as motherland, ideals, nation, national consciousness, patriotism and nationalism are often given place.
    [Show full text]
  • Nationalism, National Identity and Territory: Jacint Verdaguer and the Catalan Renaixença John Robert Etherington
    Nationalism, National Identity and Territory: Jacint Verdaguer and the Catalan Renaixença John Robert Etherington To cite this version: John Robert Etherington. Nationalism, National Identity and Territory: Jacint Verdaguer and the Catalan Renaixença. Ethnic and Racial Studies, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2010, PP (PP), pp.1. 10.1080/01419871003789887. hal-00595189 HAL Id: hal-00595189 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00595189 Submitted on 24 May 2011 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Ethnic and Racial Studies For Peer Review Only Nationalism, National Identity and Territory: Jacint Verdaguer and the Catalan Renaixença Journal: Ethnic and Racial Studies Manuscript ID: RERS-2006-0050.R5 Manuscript Type: Original Manuscript Keywords: Nationalism, Nation, Territory, Catalonia, Verdaguer, Historic Bloc URL: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rers [email protected] Page 1 of 32 Ethnic and Racial Studies 1 2 3 4 5 NATIONALISM, NATION AND TERRITORY: JACINT 6 7 8 VERDAGUER AND THE CATALAN RENAIXENÇA 9 10 11 12 Abstract 13 14 15 This paper seeks to explain the historic importance to Catalan nationalism of the 16 For Peer Review Only 17 18 nineteenth-century poet and priest, Jacint Verdaguer.
    [Show full text]
  • Leidenstudies Inislamandsociety
    After Orientalism Leiden Studies in Islam and Society Editors Léon Buskens (Leiden University) Petra M. Sijpesteijn (Leiden University) Editorial Board Maurits Berger (Leiden University) – R. Michael Feener (National University of Singapore) – Nico Kaptein (Leiden University) Jan Michiel Otto (Leiden University) – David S. Powers (Cornell University) volume 2 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/lsis After Orientalism Critical Perspectives on Western Agency and Eastern Re-appropriations Edited by François Pouillon Jean-Claude Vatin leiden | boston Cover illustration: Osman Hamdi Bey [1842–1910], A Persian carpet dealer or Street scene in Constantinople, 1888. Oil on canvas, 60×119,5 cm. Copyright: bpk / Nationalgalerie, smb / Bernd Kuhnert. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Colloque "L'orientalisme et après? - Méditations, appropriations, contestations" (2011 : Paris, France) After orientalism : critical perspectives on western agency and eastern re-appropriations / edited by Francois Pouillon, Jean-Claude Vatin. pages cm. – (Leiden studies in Islam and society ; v. 2) Original French title: Après l'orientalisme : l'Orient créé par l'Orient. Includes index. Translated from French. ISBN 978-90-04-28252-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-90-04-28253-7 (e-book) 1. Orientalism–Congresses. 2. East and West–Congresses. 3. Middle East–Civilization–Congresses. I. Pouillon, Francois. II. Vatin, Jean-Claude. III. Title. DS61.85.C6513 2011 303.48'2182105–dc23 2014034595 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface.
    [Show full text]
  • Rise of China and the Cross-Strait Relations by Philip Yang National Taiwan University
    tik 5th Europe-Northeast Asia Forum i The Taiwan Strait and Northeast Asian Security Berlin, 15-17 December 2005 A conference jointly organised by Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), Berlin, the Korean Institute for International Studies (KIIS), Seoul, and the Federal Ministry of Defence, Berlin Discussion Paper Do Note Cite or Quote without Author’s Permission ftung Wissenschaft und Pol Sti Rise of China and the Cross-Strait Relations by Philip Yang National Taiwan University German Institute for International and Security Affairs SWP Ludwigkirchplatz 3–4 10719 Berlin Phone +49 30 880 07-0 Fax +49 30 880 07-100 www.swp-berlin.org In East Asia, the rise of China has dominated most regional policy discussion and deliberation. In almost every field of regional concerns, China’s rise has posed new challenges and brought profound implications. The impacts of China's rise on cross-strait relations are also heatedly discussed in Taiwan’s academia as well as media. China’s surging economy and newfound political clout expand its tool box in handling cross-strait relations and complicate U.S. role in dealing with the cross-strait political and military stalemate. With its missile deployments directed at Taiwan and the adoption of an anti-secession law threatening the use of force to deter Taiwan’s pursuance of de jure independence, China’s coercive cross-strait policy could severely challenge the island and its most important ally, the United States. However, China’s rising economic power and political status in the region have also been translated into a growing pool of “soft” power, affording Beijing increasing leverage on cross-strait issues.
    [Show full text]
  • Research on American Nationalism: Review of the Literature, Annotated Bibliography, and Directory of Publicly Available Data Sets
    Research on American Nationalism: Review of the Literature, Annotated Bibliography, and Directory of Publicly Available Data Sets Bart Bonikowski Princeton University May 1, 2008 With a Preface by Paul DiMaggio Financial support from the Russell Sage Foundation, and helpful advice in identifying the relevant scholarly literature from Rogers Brubaker, Andrew Perrin, Wendy Rahn, Paul Starr, and Bob Wuthnow, are gratefully acknowledged. Preface Bart Bonikowski has produced an invaluable resource for scholars and students interested in American nationalism. His essay reviewing the literature in the field, the annotated bibliography that follows, and the inventory of data sets useful for the study of American nationalism constitute a sort of starter kit for anyone interested in exploring this field. As Mr. Bonikowski points out, relatively few scholars have addressed “American nationalism” explicitly. Much research on nationalism takes as its object movements based on a fiction of consanguinity, and even work that focuses on “civic” or “creedal” nationalism has often treated the United States as a marginal case. Indeed, part of the U.S.’s civic nationalist creed is to deny that there is such a thing as “American national- ism.” Americans, so the story goes, are patriotic; nationalism is foreign and exotic, something for Europe or the global South. The reality, of course, is not so simple. Both historical and social-scientific re- search demonstrates a strong tradition of ethnocultural nationalism in the U.S., providing evidence that Americans of other than European descent have often been perceived as less fully “American” than white Christians of northern European origin. Moreover, nat- ionalism need not be defined solely in ethnocultural terms.
    [Show full text]
  • National Versus Ethnic Identification in Africa
    National versus Ethnic Identification in Africa: Modernization, Colonial Legacy, and the Origins of Territorial Nationalism Amanda Lea Robinson∗ October 31, 2013 Abstract Communal conflicts, civil wars, and state collapse have led many to portray the no- tion of African nation-states as an oxymoron. Scholars of African politics have argued that strong and persistent ethnic attachments are the result of economic and political modernization, the very forces credited with reducing parochial ties in Europe. Others have argued that national consolidation in Africa is particularly unlikely due to high de- grees of ethnic diversity, colonial rule that exacerbated that diversity, and the partition of cultural groups. Despite the ubiquity of these arguments, there has been very little com- parative, empirical research on territorial nationalism in Africa. Using individual level data from sixteen countries, combined with a novel compilation of ethnic group and state characteristics, I am able to evaluate the observable implications of these long-respected theoretical traditions within a multilevel framework. I find that attachment to the nation, relative to one's ethnic group, increases with education, urbanization, and formal employ- ment at the individual level, and with economic development at the state level { patterns more consistent with classic modernization theory than second generation modernization theory. Thus, if modernization in Africa does indeed intensify ethnic attachment, the impact is overwhelmed by the concurrent increase in pan-ethnic territorial nationalism. Similarly, the results show that ethnic diversity and the partition of ethnic groups by “artificial” state borders increase, rather than decrease, the degree to which individuals identify nationally. Taken together, these results reject pessimistic expectations of African exceptionalism and instead suggest that the emergence of widespread national identifica- tion within territorially-defined African states is not only possible, but increasingly likely with greater economic development.
    [Show full text]
  • Epilogue in 1945 the Croatian Writer Vladimir Nazor
    EPILOGUE In 1945 the Croatian writer Vladimir Nazor (1876–1949), who joined the Partisans at the end of 1942, wrote a poem entitled ‘Poems of the Fist’, in which he declared that the Croats were not Goths but ‘an ancient fragment of Slavdom.’ Whoever dared to claim differently, Nazor wrote, would ‘feel our fist.’1 After the collapse of the NDH in May 1945, the new communist authorities soon turned Nazor’s threat of violence against the proponents of the non-Slavic theories of Croat origin into actual policy. The leading proponent of the Gothic theory, the 78 year-old historian and Catholic priest Kerubin Šegvić, was sentenced to death, and subsequently executed, by a Yugoslav military court, on the grounds that his theory on ‘the non-Slavic origin of the Croats’ was designed to ‘demolish Slavic unity’ and ‘incite national hatred among the peoples of Yugoslavia.’2 In spite of its theoretical adherence to Marxist internationalism, the lead- ership of the new Yugoslav state under Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980) also strongly promoted the racial-supranational ideologies of pan-Slavism and Yugoslavism, at least in the early period of its rule. Belgrade was chosen as the site of the Soviet ‘Pan-Slav Congress’ held in December 1946, because Marshal Tito was regarded as Stalin’s most ‘trusted communist fighter’, while ‘the Yugoslavs were regarded as the second ranking Slav nation’ after the Soviet Union. At the end of his opening speech at the Congress, Tito made a ‘three-fold toast, to Slav solidarity, to our greatest Slav brother, the Soviet Union [and] to its leader of genius, Stalin.’3 Theories of the non-Slav origin of the Croats were not officially welcome in Yugoslav academic and political life.
    [Show full text]