China Selective Identities ― State, Ideology and Culture

This book discusses the role of selective identities in shaping China’s position in regional and global affairs. It does so by using the concept of political transition of power, and argues that by taking different types of identities—state, ideology and culture—the Chinese government has adjusted China's identity to different kinds of audiences. By fitting different kinds of "self", China has secured its relatively peaceful transition within the existing system and in the meantime strengthened its capacity to place its principles within the existing system. In the case of its neighborhood, China presents itself as a state with the need of having clear-cut borders. In the case of the developing world (Global South) China narrates “self” as an ideology with the banner of materialism, equality and justice. For the third group of audience, the developed world, mainly Europe, the Chinese presents themselves as a peaceful, innocent cultural construct mainly based on Confucius’ passive approach. By bringing these three identities into "one China's body" [????sanweiyiti], the Chinese skillfully maneuvers and builds its position in global affairs.

Bartosz Kowalski is a research fellow at the Center for Asian Affairs and works at the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Lodz, where he teaches modern history and politics of China. His main research activities include China’s state-building policies in the north-western borderlands with his current project focusing on the transfer of Soviet ethnic policies to China’s North-West in the mid-1930s.