Occidentalism and the Making of Chinese Nationalism: Chinese Intellectuals and the West in the 1990s.

Yu-Hsuan Sun, University of Toronto

A prevailing interpretation of state-society relations in post-Tiananmen China is that the Chinese Communist Party pushed for patriotism to solve its looming legitimation crisis. While the view pinpoints the necessity for authoritarian regimes to find alternative sources of legitimacy, such a position omits society-level actors and their attitudes toward the state. In the case of China, nationalist sentiments often feature a protracted rhetoric that pits "China" against "the West." Yet the perception of the Western other varies drastically and has been the subject of intense debate among Chinese intellectuals. This paper examines how Chinese intellectuals in the 1990s made sense of "the West" and their perception of China's future. As Chinese intellectuals with distinct ideational dispositions began to study in Western institutions in the early 1990s, they brought in popular thought trends from Europe and the United States across the political spectrum. The diffusion of ideas crystallized in a fierce debate on the question of modernity in China. While a group of liberal-leaning scholars argued that China should embrace Westernization, another coalition of intellectuals, labelled the New Left, believed China ought to reject Western liberal democracy and forge its own modernity. Tracing the intellectual biographies and writings of prominent Chinese intellectuals in the 1990s, the study explores how their perception of the West and the adaption of Western intellectual currents fostered their national imagination. My findings have further implications for the sociology of intellectuals. Traditional theories have focused on whether intellectuals are class-bound or class-less. However, such debates ignore colonial or quasi-colonial factors that shaped knowledge production in non-Western countries. For other scholars interested in China, this study contributes to the bourgeoning literature on how the Chinese perceive themselves in light of China's rise.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 63. Sociological Theory, History, and Identity