Nationalism in China & Taiwan
The Center for Chinese Studies presents a day-long conference, January 22
Published: Thursday, January 13, 2005
Venue: 6275 Bunche Hall, UCLA
10:00 am - Morning Panel
PERRY ANDERSON (History, UCLA)
Hypotheses on Taiwanese Nationalism
RICHARD BAUM (Political Science, UCLA)
Globalization, Economic Interdependence, & Self-Determination: The Case of Taiwan
This talk focuses on the dynamic push-pull of the forces of globalization as these forces have impacted Taiwan’s complex, troubled relationship with mainland China. Specifically, it examines the concurrent -– and manifestly divergent - phenomena of increasing cross-strait economic interdependence and rising Taiwanese nationalism. The objective is to understand how the tension between these two byproducts of globalization have helped shape the prospects for peaceful integration and eventual reunification (or, alternatively, permanently divided sovereignty and possible war) across the Taiwan Strait.
MAU-KUEI CHANG (Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica)
Taiwan and the Issue of National Identity
This talk speculates about the theory and the status of nationalism in Taiwan while examining the promotion of nationalism in China. It raises questions in order to understand the similarities and the differences between the nationalism of the mainlander diaspora in Taiwan and nationalism in China. It also considers why Taiwan became known as a "troublemaker" with regard to the international regime. These issues will be examined from a sociological perspective presented through "Idols of the Tribe," which focuses on the common dark side of nationalism in both China and Taiwan.
1:30 pm - Afternoon Panel
EDWARD FRIEDMAN (Political Science, University of Wisconsin)
Post-Deng Chinese Nationalism & the Militarization of China's Taiwan Policy
This talk analyzes how the loss of revolutionary and charismatic legitimacy in the post-Mao era combined with the panic from the crisis of the Soviet bloc in 1989-91 to create a militarized nationalism which infuses Chinese politics and endangers the peace of the region.
PETER GRIES (Political Science, University of Colorado)
Identity Politics across the Taiwan Strait: Taiwan, the 'Century of Humiliation,' & Chinese Nationalism Today
Most Americans view the Taiwan issue as a question of defending a small democracy (ROC) against a big bullying tyranny (the PRC). This view reflects lingering Cold War attitudes towards "Red China" and our Liberal fear of the state. It does not, however, tell us much about what actually motivates Chinese on the Taiwan issue. To understand Chinese views about Taiwan, one must enter into nationalist discourses on their past "Century of Humiliation," and recognize the insult that Taiwan's continued separation from China represents to Chinese national pride.
SUISHENG ZHAO (Political Science, University of Denver)
Political Dynamics of Chinese Nationalism
My talk will be based on my newly published book, A Nation State by Construction, Dynamics of Modern Chinese Nationalism, which seeks to provide a historically comprehensive understanding of the origins, contents, and consequences of nationalism in China, an ancient empire that has struggled to construct a modern nation-state and find its place in the modern world. I will start by looking at the resurgence of Chinese nationalism in the 1990s at the three levels of the state, intellectual discourse, and popular society and then proceed to explore a controversial issue: if Chinese nationalism has come as a spontaneous response to the external humiliation with a coherent content, or has been subject to the manipulation of the Chinese government. I will end with the discussion of another controversial issue: whether or not an aggressive nationalism would emerge from China's "century of humiliation" after its rise to the status of modernized power.
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This conference is supported by an
Educational Grant from the Government Information Office (Taipei, Taiwan)
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About the Panelists
Perry Anderson. For over forty years, Perry Anderson has been one of the most influential figures on the intellectual left. Through his writings, publishing, editing of New Left Review, and teaching at UCLA (where he has a joint appointment in History and Sociology), he has introduced and disseminated a range of European Marxist opinion to the English-speaking world: Deutscher, Gramsci, Sartre, Lukács, Althusser, Poulantzas, to name a few. His own books are seminal contributions to political theory.
Richard Baum (PhD, UC Berkeley, 1970) is professor of Political Science and the director of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies. He is author or editor of eight books on Chinese politics and numerous articles. During his thirty-five years on the faculty at UCLA, he has held visiting scholar or professor appointments at numerous universities in China, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Sweden, and the Netherlands. His recent work concerns (1) the impact of China's post-Mao reforms on local governance in the PRC; (2) globalization and political institutionalization in post-reform China; and (3) U.S.-China relations and the prospects for war and peace across the Taiwan Strait. Baum has served on the editorial board of several academic journals, and as a media commentator, writes for, and is often quoted in, newspapers, TV, and other outlets in the U.S. and abroad.
Ma-kuei Chang (PhD, Purdue University, 1984) is Deputy Director of the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica (Taipei). His research interests include social movements, ethnic relations and nationalism, and identity politics. Among his most recent publications are (in English) "Understanding Contending Nationalist Identities" (a chapter in Democratization & Identity, S. Hender, ed., 2004), and (in Chinese) The Study of Social Movements in Taiwan and the Mainland (co-edited with Zheng Yongnian, 2003).
Edward Friedman (PhD, Harvard, 1968), has published widely on democracy, politics in China, revolution, and the comparative study of transitions in Leninist states. The most recent among his publications, which number ten books and nearly a hundred chapters and articles, are Chinese Village, Socialist State (1991), The Politics of Democratization: Generalizing the East Asian Experience (1994), National Identity and Democratic Prospects in Socialist China (1995), and What if China doesn't democratize? Implications for War and Peace (2001).
Peter Hays Gries (PhD, is assistant professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Codirector of the Sino-American Security Dialogue, and coeditor of State and Society in 21st-Century China: Crisis, Contention, and Legitimation (forthcoming). In 2004, he published China’s New Nationalism: Pride, Politics, and Diplomacy (University of California Press), excerpts from which may be read at Amazon.com.
Suisheng Zhao (PhD, UC San Diego) is associate professor at the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver and Executive Director of DU's Center for China-U.S. Cooperation. He is on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (USCSCAP), founder and editor of the Journal of Contemporary China, and a Research Associate at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University. He is a Campbell National Fellowship award winner. Formerly he was a research fellow in the Economic Research Center of the State Council in China and an assistant professor at Beijing University. His most recent book is A Nation State by Construction, Dynamics of Modern Chinese Nationalism (Stanford Univ. Press, 2004).
