Essay on the Evolution of Identity, Ideology, and Nationalism in China

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the intertwined themes of identity, ideology, and nationalism within the context of China. It explores how these elements have shaped China's development, focusing on the use of propaganda within mainland China to mold nationalistic and ideological viewpoints, particularly in relation to Hong Kong. The essay examines the impact of these changes on the Chinese population and highlights the significance of China's identity in the East Asian region. Furthermore, it delves into the evolution of Chinese ideologies, the role of the Chinese Communist Party, and the challenges faced by China's ideology over time, including the impact of political violence in Hong Kong and the evolution of the state's propaganda model. The essay provides a comprehensive overview of China's political and economic landscape, concluding with insights into China's changing identity and its evolving role on the global stage.

Running Head: SOCIOLOGY 0
THEMES OF IDENTITY, IDEOLOGY AND NATIONALISM IN CHINA

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In this essay, the themes of identity, ideology, and nationalism in context of China
will be elaborated. The themes have contributed to the development of China that led to the
evolution of various other policies so, the analysis will further focus on the utilization of
propaganda in the mainland of China towards strongly shaping the nationalistic or ideological
views in relation to Hong Kong and the impact of these changes on Chinese population It will
also specify the relevance of China’s identity in aspect to East Asia and along with an
appropriate conclusion of the overall discussion.
Ideological and Nationalistic Views of China
In the late nineteenth century, the evolution of present-day concept of the Chinese
ideologies relates to the effective measures in raising its position at the global level. In the
present time, there is lack of philosophical views on China’s ideological development. It is
also considering the socialist government of China which is supposed to be the unavoidable
culmination of the past that affected the history, identity, and modernization of China
(O'Neil, Patrick H., Fields, & Karl, 2015). About two centuries ago, The emergence of the
modern Chinese ideologies greatly impacted its political power.
The nationalism is the form of belief where the Chinese government maintains the
good relations with other country involving the Hans Chinese people. In relevance to the
present form of Chinese nationalism that implicit the cultural similarity keeping the Han-
centric view-point of the world (Friedman, 2016). The Chinese nationalism is taken from
immensely different ideological sources involving the traditional Chinese thinking, American
progressivism, Marxism, and the Russian ethnological thought. The versions of the Chinese
state have been into existence since the 4,000 years.
The communist party in China used the propaganda to influence the ideological and
nationalistic point of view in its own favour. In the country, it consist of censorship and a

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vigorous growing of opinions, that stands with the government. The central objective of the
Government is to use propaganda to influence its people . The several features of the
following can be traced through the history of Chinese; nevertheless, propaganda has been
most productive during the twentieth century due to media forces and tyrannical government
(He, 2018). Today, In China the nationalism and improved economy are the central aspects of
propaganda.
The rectification movements in china mark the beginning of the propaganda, which
later became a principal part of its structure. The system was inspired by the Nazi, Soviet and
other such mechanisms which symbolizes the typical Leninist transmission belt for mass
mobilization and indoctrination (Faure & Liu, 2016). One of the political leaders known as
the David Sham Baugh who noticed that the propaganda and the discipline signified the
important characteristics of Maoist China ; it employed a variety of thought control
techniques that include the reforms of the thought, the campaign related to the mass
mobilization, the forming of the ideological monitors and propaganda teams for
indoctrination purposes, the ratification of the articles to be memorized, authority of the
educational system and media, etc and an attempt to change the views of Hong Kong.
The social, cultural and political life of the nation was influenced by extreme
conditions created through propaganda by communist party. However, the ideology of China
has experienced many challenges and met through changes since the years in the leadership
of Deng Xiaoping. The Chinese Communist Party has been identified for the absence of a
reasonable identity by the foreign commentator (Dirlik & Meisner, 2016). These
commentators believe that the ideology in the aspect of China is seemed to be very practical
and the functioning of their organization as it dependent only on the interested and the
valuable one.

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In the year 1969, the propagandists of China utilized every achievable method of
transmission accessible in the form of print media such as newspapers and posters, electronic
media like television, other cultural arts including plays and music, etc. The essential mode of
transmission that contributed is the central television. The newspaper named People’s Daily
contributed for print propaganda (Unger, 2016). The past propaganda made the Chinese
government further involve its soldiers and the workers like the Lei Feng, the hero of Chinese
Civil War Dong Cunrui, etc. The genuine efforts from these great people culminated the
propaganda which was full of violence and defamation.
In the year 1976, Post- Mao campaign was recognized with the initiation of anti-
spiritual campaign. In the year 1990s, The theorists of propaganda represented the challenges
that were experienced by China through the emergence of the thought work known as the
blind spots (Tang, 2016). The creation of the modern propaganda model was by involving
the concepts that are taken from the mass communication theory, related to the public
relations, social psychology and other modern concepts that were relevant for upgrading the
system of China.
This eruption of the political violence in Hong Kong has impacted in the direct rule
from the aspects of Beijing. It is completely unexpected that to conduct Britain’s former
colony the steadily new measures were enforced. It was further stated the consideration
where one country but having two system principles kept capitalist Hong Kong and
communist China alongside for the past 22 years (Kwok-leung, 2018). It was held in the year
1984 that led to the extended boiling crisis of the mutual confidence was the same as the
Sino-British Joint Declaration which resulted in such legal grounds that were expected to be
void.

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In relation to Hong Kong, it was very clearly shown that the present economic and the
social system and the lifestyle will not change. The Rights and the Freedoms related to
individual’s speech and religious beliefs were protected by stringent laws. It was observed
that under the authoritarian leadership of Xi Jinping, the fundamental rights were regularly
ignored in the mainland of China (Hou, Hall, Lau, & Hobfoll, 2015). At the joint declaration,
the basic rights of autonomy were harshly taken away from the people of Hong Kong
It has been stated that if the leaders of China kept appropriate promises with Hong
Kong leader Margaret Thatcher, there would be less of exploitation with the people. The
regaining of the control by Beijing was self-satisfactory on its own. Then, a UN-registered
treaty was declared non-binding the historical document that claimed to be lacking in the
practical significance for almost 50 years and further declaring it invalid and useless
(Glosserman & Snyder, 2015). However, the only way to give strength to Hong Kong is by
sustaining economic growth and maintaining the stability to further consolidating its
development amongst the nations.
The imposition of the de facto rule from Beijing with maintaining the effective
expression of one country two systems and the invention of the self-government were the
means of solving problems for China (Kalmanowitz & Ho, 2016). It was significantly found
that the Hong Kong and the Macau office of the State Council had violent offenders
involving the criminal responsibility had challenged the one country two systems rule.
China in Terms of Identity

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The concept relating to China’s political identity has gained popular interests from the post-
80s generations because of its characteristics and its role in different features of Chinese
society (Shen & Xiong, 2016). In the post-80s generation, the members of the group who had
belonged to the Mainland of China were born in the period of 1980-89. This affected the
categorization that involves: firstly, where majority of the people were considered the single
child of the family; these people received high-quality education due to only child status
(Zhouxiang, 2018). Such people are fluent in speaking any kind of language. It has also
perceived that they had a good hand at technology and are open to gaining international
education
. China’s identity in aspect to East Asia strongly influenced its political and cultural
identities amongst the other countries. The national identity syndrome affected the other
countries of the region that involves the Confucian heritage and the shared historical
experiences (Dai, 2016). In the aspect of China, the national identity is seemed to be very
extreme along with the structure perspectives of the other nations. It can be better justified by
the fact that China can uplift its political and cultural identities by developing healthy
relations within the countries of East Asia (Lam & Lim, 2017).
Until the end of the 1980s, the main alteration was identified with respect to the
treatment of Cold War along with the fault of U.S. anti-communism, creating a distinct
perspective. The third element is dealing with the systematic framework of sectoral. In China,
the political parties presently focus on creating the lively Eastern civilization that is being
reduced in the opposite of the West (Lee, Jon, & Byun, 2016). So, therefore the economic
and the political national identity are sincerely dealt with the other nation-states.
In the present day, China is focusing on the state concentrated national governance by
officials which were, in turn, contrasting to the narratives as they focused on decentralization

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and governance based on family groups (Huhe & Tang, 2015). To protect its indifferent
model the danger of globalization is vigorously rejected. As a way of attaining unification
under Chinese domination, there is a continuous focus on regionalism, leaving the United
States and their alliances (Brown, 2018). To gather the support of the US hegemony, the
Chinese follow the beliefs towards responsible stakeholders and not to change world politics.
The major framework involving the intensity, the power of the national identity and
its positive with all other nations are the basic factors of national identity gaps and to
maintain bilateral with fulfilling each other’s identity. If such gaps are not considered and
they occur in a complex state then diplomacy becomes complicated and even ineffective
because the national representatives find it difficult to settle on such grounds (Herb &
Kaplan, 2017).
The situation where a country like China has increased its nationalistic and
ideological support to preserve its political power by making immense efforts by establishing
relations with the other developing nations to achieve modernization where they were lacking
because of the crisis (Fan, 2018). It has expanded the ways out to reach the overseas and
further stated the response to a more oppressive dictatorship after the authoritarian rule.
It has highlighted the changes that have been faced by the Chinese government from
the influential ideology to moving towards communism to the party-led nationalism. China
has been modified from the state of propaganda situation into the present Party publicity Inc.
which comes under the media dominance that is now changed to maintain its status within the
other nations (Callahan, 2015). In context to China, the political and the economic factors
that had been adversely affected by such rising communist ideology and nationalism is now
all set to reconstruct by actively participating with the developing nations to regain its
political power (Dittmer & Kim, 2018).

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It has been further concluded that the development of China has moved into a new
phase with its change in identity and roles. In the views of the other countries, the crises and
propaganda have led to the state of uncertainty in the country. In the international system, the
new perspectives are shaping the distinct position of China (Lei, 2016).
In accordance with the Chinese scholars, the emphasis is relying on the growth of the
status and identities which was impacted during that time period. China has distinct
positioning but having various identities such as a socialist and developing country, rising
power and East Asian regional power, etc. So, therefore the ultimate focus is to efficiently get
back to China in the same position and verge.
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