The Form of National Identification in China in the 20th Century

Abstract

The social upheaval in modern China gave birth to the modern enlightenment intellectual class, and also imposed dynamics on people’s national identification, especially the intellectuals. The process of identification forming is discussed based on the understanding of Chinese and Western culture and the choice of Chinese culture outlet. The form of national identification in China in the twentieth century has brewed the development trend of structural changes in modern Chinese culture. The socialization practice theory was applied into historical area, through sense breaking, sense giving and sense making, to illustrate how the identifications of Conservative and New School formed. Considering the social events as the background, western culture as the seeker, it was the culture shock that broke the original sense, and the constant culture input that gave the new identification. When the sensory processing was successful, the advantages of Western culture were recognized and accepted, thus forming a closed identity (new school). However, if the sense making relatively failed, there would be ambivalent identification (Conservative).