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By exploring the meaning construction of Chinese citizenship stipulated in Chinese legislation and its interaction with social identities and human nature in the Chinese society, the present study investigates the nature and evolution of the conception of Chinese citizens through three selected cases from Chinese legislations, which illuminate that Chinese citizens are essentially persons with independent personalities defined by the rights and obligations stipulated in legislation. This conception is further strengthened by the entitlement to private properties and equality before law. This conception of Chinese citizenship is concrete and meaningful in the sense that it is underpinned with reference to social identities as person, people and personality in Chinese legislations. The reference of the conception to human being constitutes the essence of Chinese legislation. The meaning construction of Chinese citizenship is indeed a dynamic process engineered in the social and cultural process. The findings on the evolution of the construction of Chinese citizenship in Chinese legislation suggest that the formation of legal identity through legislation varies greatly in different countries. Nevertheless, the realization of the conception of citizenship will necessarily be backed up

The present study deals with the relationship between terminology evolution and legal development. Altogether 100 Chinese legal terms are randomly collected from Chinese statutes in order to examine the legal development in China from 1912 to the present. The results demonstrate that terminology evolution acts as a prerequisite and driving force for legal development in China via three evolution patterns: localization, internationalization and standardization. Terminology evolution serves as the mechanism for absorbing, communicating and mediating legal rules, which renders Chinese legal terminology more suited to its social and cultural contexts, and hence promotes overall legal development. It is also observed that terminology evolution is not only playing a vital role in the development of the legal system in China, but also acting as the beneficiary of such legal development.

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