China’s founding nationalist ideology grounded national identity in biological race

Evidence

Minzu, a key term used interchangeably for both “ethnic group” and “nationality” after 1949, referred to a common descent group with a distinct culture and territory. During the incipient period of 1902 to 1911, moreover, minzu as a term was used to promote symbolic boundaries of blood and descent: “nationalities” as political units were equated with “races” as biological units. In the nationalist ideology of the first decade of the twentieth century, minzu was thought to be based on a quantifiable number of people called “Han,” a group with clear boundaries by virtue of imagined blood and descent. Sun Yatsen (1866-1925) became one of the principal proponents of a Chinese minzu, which he claimed was linked primarily by “common blood.” Minzuzhuyi, or “the doctrine of the minzu” became the term used to translate into Chinese the ideology of nationalism, thus clearly indicating the overlap which was envisaged between nation and race. Nationalism was the first principle of Sun Yatsen’s “Three Principles of the People,” and it has been adopted ever since by both the Guomindang and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3319 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

It is not suggested here that race was the only significant form of identity available in China, but that notions of ethnicity, nation, and race have often been conflated in the politics of nationalism. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3358 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Chinese nationalism was built on an imagined equation of nation and race — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3319; Chinese nationalism has persistently conflated ethnicity, nation, and race — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3358; China’s internal diversity paradoxically made racial descent ideology powerfully cohesive (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Chinese nationalism was built on an imagined equation of nation and race #corroborates (0.95) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3319
• Chinese nationalism has persistently conflated ethnicity, nation, and race #corroborates (0.92) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3358