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This Wall Street Journal piece about a new book with a title that translates as Unhappy China misses the function of nationalism in the PRC. The government maintains its grip in part by instilling nationalistic pride in its youth (which in itself isn’t especially unique). Disaffected college students and workers then blame local entities (governmental or private) for their troubles rather than blame the national government. Moreover, when issues like Tibetan independence are framed as questions of nationalism (China, the savior of Tibetan slaves, versus the hypocritical West according to CCTV9 broadcasts during the Olympic torch relay), it becomes nearly impossible for students and workers to connect their own causes and issues with other movements. 

Given this function, why have state-run media outlets criticized this book? The slightly better Time article on the subject points to one reason: “the fear is that if the sentiment flares unchecked, it could push Beijing to take a belligerent, isolationist line.” That would certainly be bad for business.

Note, too, that at least some of the criticism is not of extreme nationalism but, rather, of taking advantage of a nationalism that, it is assumed, ought to exist. The Wall Street Journal article quotes China Youth Daily as claiming that the authors are seeking to profit from nationalism, “fish[ing] money from the pockets of the angry youth and angry elderly”. This sort of critique reinscribes the value of nationalism by the very angle of attack.

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• Rebecca Novick: China Makes a Song and Dance About Tibet’s ‘Liberation’ (huffingtonpost.com)
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• China bans Oasis (telegraph.co.uk)
• Capitalism Finds Voice in China TV (nytimes.com)

Yesterday’s moment of silence– three minutes, actually– fell during the time when students would normally be heading to class. When it began, those who were walking around froze in place and turned to face the direction of the national flag (even if they were out of sight range); many students, however, had already gathered near the flagpole. I honestly felt slightly uncomfortable as a foreigner here seeing such a show of nationalism, but more interesting than my discomfort is how this moment of silence reflects the way everything here– every emotion, every tragedy– is converted into nationalism and an opportunity to demonstrate it.

While I know that in the country I come from something similar was done after September 11, this seems to be a more extreme case. The storyline for September 11 is that it was an attack on the whole country; a natural disaster cannot be so easily constructed in such a way. Making humanitarian aid, even within one’s own country, an expression of nationalism takes more work, especially when rescue crews have come from other countries (including Japan, the nation most commonly viewed as the villain in expressions of Chinese nationalism). Perhaps it takes an even greater love of the State to begin with as well.