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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 June 2011
Following the influential volumes of Benedict Anderson (Imagined communities) and Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (The invention of tradition), a number of recent publications have moved away from the more conventional focus on political nationalism to highlight the cultural expressions of national identities in East Asian history. From the manipulation of physical objects like flags, uniforms and monuments to symbolically represent the nation, to the discursive invention of identities in nationalist ideologies, cultural nationalism as an object of historical investigation has come into vogue. The emphasis on the interpretation of symbols like the Great Wall and the Yellow River no doubt contributes to our understanding of Chinese cultural history, but can it really account for the deeper changes wrought by the spread of nationalism? As I have pointed out elsewhere, the racialization of nationalist identities, with its myths of origins, ideologies of blood and narratives of descent, for instance, has been of great importance in China and remains significant to this day. Instead of explaining how ‘the Chinese’ have invented cultural symbols that represent the nation, it might be more fruitful to deconstruct the notion of ‘Chineseness’ itself as a nationalist invention that can be dated back to the first half of this century.
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