‘The Panda of Plants’: The Discovery of Dawn Redwood and National Identity Construction in Modern China

Abstract

This article analyzes the role played by the 1940s discovery of dawn redwood (Shuishan , Metasequoia glyptostroboides) in the construction of a modern Chinese national identity, as manifested in Chinese intellectual and popular discourse from the second half of the twentieth century to the present day. As the shuishan was transformed from a distinct biological species into an iconic national species, modern China as an ‘imagined community’ was forged in three dimensions. Spatially, the emerging national space was anchored in the world of nations; the temporal scale was redefined, and Chinese history projected back into deep time; and through the attribution of moral qualities to the tree, the ressentiment arising from the late development of nationalism was reaffirmed but also countered.