Manufacturing Modern Chinese
Identities
Dr. Howard Chiang, H0.16
(H.H.Chiang@warwick.ac.uk)
Chinese Dynasties
221-206 BC
206 BC-220 AD
220-280 AD
265-420 AD
420-589 AD
581-618 AD
618-907 AD
907-1125 AD
907-960 AD
960-1279 AD
1271-1368 AD
1368-1644 AD
1644-1911 AD
Qin Dynasty
Han Dynasty
Three Kingdoms
Jin Dynasty
Southern and Northern Dynasties
Sui Dynasty
Tang Dynasy
Liao Dynasty
5 Dynasties and 10 Kingdoms
Song Dynasty
Yuan Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
Education Reform
1894-1895 First Sino-Japanese War
1911-1949 Republican Period
1900s Western-style education
19th-c. missionary schools (southeast coast;
treaty ports – extraterritorial rights)
Civil service examination system – producing
the bureaucratic elite
Fuzhou Shipyard
Education Reform
1898 math was introduced into the exams
1902 “eight-legged essays” replaced by policy
essays
1905 abolished the civil exam system altogether
New schools created; old schools converted
(still mostly for boys; girls only 2% in 1909)
- Transform the people into loyal patriots
- Train competent officials
Education Reform
1903 & 1906: Qing issued sets of regulations
- restricted the amount of time to be spent in
the traditional study of the Chinese classics
- new subjects: history, geography, science,
mathematics, physical exercise, and music
Textbooks: introduced Western ideas, with
themes of nationalism and patriotism
Guo (國) from dynasty to country as in Guoyu
(“national language” or “Mandarin Chinese”)
Education Reform
New schools:
- Time – divided into terms and weeks
- Costume – new jackets and trousers
- Etiquette – no more kowtow (kneeling on the
knees and knocking head on the floor)
- Anti-Confucian value system – “no father, no
monarch”
Race and Revolution
Qing government began to send students
abroad for advanced study
- bring back technical skills
- Europe, America, but mostly to Japan (Meiji
Restoration since 1860s)
- 13 students sent to Japan in 1896; by 1905,
the number rose up to 8,000-9,000
- Political concerns over technical scientific
subjects: for example, Lu Xun (“father of
modern Chinese literature”)
- Experiences clash with Chinese culturalism
Lu Xun
(1881-1936)
Liang Qichao
(1873-1929):
the concept of race
Race and Revolution
Liang Qichao’s conception of race:
- 18th century: Manchu identity from cultural
practices to inheritance
- Han Chinese being descendants of the
Yellow Emperor, the mythical founder of the
Han race, as a kind of lineage binding the
whole Han people into a single family
- Han vs. Manchu = ‘Chinese’ vs. others
(replacing the older concept of flexible
boundaries based on degrees of
acculturation)
Race and Revolution
Liang Qichao’s conception of race:
- From “all under heaven” (tianxia, 天下) to
country (guojia, 國家)
- “On a New People” - a new emphasis on the
relationship between individuals and the
collective: the family, society, and country
- “Nation” (minzu, 民族) taken from Japanese
(before 1900, minzu meant “tribes”; after
1900, it became part of anti-Manchu thought)
Revolutionary groups: Sun Yatsen, Kang Youwei
Sun Yatsen
(1866-1925)
Revive China Society
“revolutionaries”
Kang Youwei
(1858-1927)
Protect the Emperor
Society
“reformers”
Race and Revolution
Revolutionary groups
- Sun Yatsen – “revolutionaries”
- Kang Youwei – “reformers”
Huaqiao (華僑): “Overseas Chinese”
- refer to ethnic Chinese living outside the
Chinese state
- Chinese nationalism was from an early stage
pushed towards a definition of national
identity that could encompass these groups
(emphasis on descent)
Ethnicity
Han symbolism of revolution
- Ethnic minorities distinguished earlier by bans
on immigration, intermarriage, and even the
learning of the Chinese language
Manchuria & Xinjiang – similar to rest of China
Mongolia – independence in 1911 (“kitad”)
Tibet – 1912 to 1951 de facto separation from
China