Situated Interpretations of Nationalism, Imperialism, and Cosmopolitanism: Revisiting the Writings ofLiang in the Encounter Between Worlds

Abstract

The idea of the nation has been considered to have delivered political modernity from its native Europe to the rest of the world. The same applies, though more implicitly, to those paradoxes inherent to the nationalist ideology – that between universalism and national particularity and that between liberal nationalism and imperialism. This article seeks to complicate these theses by looking at the interpretations of nationalism, imperialism, and cosmopolitanism provided by Liang Qichao, one of the most influential Chinese intellectuals in early twentieth century, during his exile in Japan when increasingly exposed to the encounter between worlds. This reading also engages with the wider debates on modernity/modernities in non‐Western societies through showing that neither the “consumers of modernity” approach nor the “creative adaptations” approach can be easily applied here. I argue that the various tensions, contingencies and historical situatedness in Liang's accounts of the nation‐state structure represent and constitute the paradox of the structure itself. They also shed light on contemporary debates about the limits of our political imagination in the misnamed “global politics” beyond the false opposition between nationalism and cosmopolitanism.

Right-wing populism with Chinese characteristics? Identity, otherness and global imaginaries in debating world politics online

“…The category of race and the notion of racial struggles were appropriated not only to make sense of the international system that China had been forced to engage with, but also to construct the concept of a Chinese nation ( zhonghuaminzu ) as an ‘organic entity with an uninterrupted line of descent’ (Dikötter, 2015). Under the influence of prominent intellectuals and political leaders such as Liang Qichao and Sun Yat-sen (Zhang, 2014), the idea that the Chinese belong to a biological group called the ‘yellow race’, and that the white and yellow races are superior to others in terms of intelligence and cultural traits, was instrumental in the formation of national consciousness.…”

Right-Wing Populist Discourse on Chinese Social Media: Identity, Otherness, and Global Imaginaries

“…The category of race and the notion of racial struggles were appropriated not only to make sense of the international system China had been forced to engage with, but also to construct the concept of a Chinese nation (zhonghuaminzu) as an 'organic entity with an uninterrupted line of descent' (Dikötter, 2015). Under the influence of prominent intellectuals and political leaders such as Liang Qichao and Sun Yat-sen (Zhang, 2014), the idea that the Chinese belong to a biological group called the 'yellow race', and that the white and yellow races are superior to others in terms of intelligence and cultural traits was instrumental in the formation of national consciousness 17 .…”