Gina Anne Tam
Western commentators frequently speak of Chinese identity in sweeping generalizations. They encompass cultural norms (that Chinese people all speak Mandarin, revere their elders, or celebrate the Lunar New Year); philosophy (that Chinese people think in “centuries” rather than years); and governance (that Chinese people prefer alternatives to democratic governance because they think collectively). A common theme links these tropes: the idea that the Chinese people are a singular mass, unified in belief, culture, and politics.
These presumptions of unity aren’t confined to foreign commentators. They are also actively promoted by the Chinese leadership. For Xi Jinping, and the party leadership as a whole, Chinese identity is unified and narrow, defined by the conflation of a cultural Chinese identity, national Chinese citizenship, and loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. As Xi proclaimed in his 2018 speech to the National People’s Congress, “Over the past thousands of years, the Chinese people have been united.”
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