Never forget national humiliation
Subtitle: historical memory in Chinese politics and foreign relations
By: Zheng Wang
Series: Contemporary Asia in the world
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 293
ISBN-13: 9780231148900; 9780231520164
Subjects: Politics and government; Collective memory; Political aspects; Foreign relations; Psychological aspects
Description: "How could the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) not only survive but even thrive, regaining the support of many Chinese citizens after the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989? Why has popular sentiment turned toward anti-Western nationalism despite the anti-dictatorship democratic movements of the 1980s? And why has China been more assertive toward the United States and Japan in foreign policy but relatively conciliatory toward smaller countries in conflict? Offering an explanation for these unexpected trends, Zheng Wang follows the Communist government's ideological reeducation of the public, which relentlessly portrays China as the victim of foreign imperialist bullying during 'one hundred years of humiliation.' By concentrating on the telling and teaching of history in today's China, Wang illuminates the thinking of the young patriots who will lead this rising power in the twenty-first century."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: from "Tank Man" to China's new patriots; title: Historical memory, identity, and politics; title: Chosen glory, chosen trauma; title: From "all-under-heaven" to a nation-state: humiliation and nation-building; title: From victor to victim: the patriotic education campaign; title: From vanguard to patriot: reconstructing the Chinese Communist Party; title: From earthquake to Olympics: new trauma, new glory; title: Memory, crises, and foreign relations; title: Memory, textbooks, and Sino-Japanese reconciliation; title: Memory, nationalism, and China's rise.